Blast near Serena Hotel in Pakistan’s Quetta Leaves 2 Cops Dead, 12 Injured

By Staff, Agencies

At least two policemen lost their lives and 12 people, including eight policemen, sustained injuries on Sunday when a powerful blast targeted a police van near a luxury hotel in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's troubled southwestern Balochistan province, officials said.

"The initial probe showed that the bomb was fitted with a motorbike," Balochistan government spokesman Liaquat Shahwani said.

He said initially that the blast killed two policemen and wounded eight others.

Shahwani said four passers-by were also wounded in the blast that targeted the police mobile van at Tanzeem Square near Serena Hotel in Quetta.

The security agencies have cordoned off the area and launched a manhunt to arrest the culprits, he added.

The injured have been shifted to the city's Civil Hospital, a senior police official said, adding that the windows of nearby buildings were shattered due to the explosion.

No group took the responsibility for the blast but the Baloch nationalists are active in the province and often target the security forces. They accuse the federal government of exploiting the natural resources of the province.

A Counter-Terrorism Department [CTD] spokesperson said that the police van was targeted via an improvised explosive device [IED] attached to a motorcycle.

The attack comes more than three months after a powerful bomb exploded in the parking lot of the Serena Hotel, killing five people and wounding a dozen others.