Islamabad: Twin blasts in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta on Saturday afternoon have killed 20 people, including eleven female students, a police officer and three soldiers who died in gunfire, and injured at least 20 others. The first blast took place on a bus carrying students of a women's university while the second bomb exploded at the hospital where the injured of the bus blast were taken for treatment. There are reports that armed terrorists are still holed up in the hospital, Bolan Medical Complex.
One person has been arrested for carrying out the attacks on the Bolan Medical Complex in Quetta. Commandos have been called in to rein in the terrorists after they fired at the police outside.
The Quetta Deputy Police Commissioner has been killed in the exchange of fire. A Frontier Corps official told DawnNews four of the eight gunmen have been killed.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack but the blasts occurred hours after terrorists attacked and destroyed a historic 121-year-old building in Ziarat, about 120 km from Quetta, that was used by Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the last days of his life. A policeman was killed in that attack, which was claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army.
The first blast occurred within the campus of Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University at Brewery Road. Students and faculty members were in the stationary bus when a bomb planted inside went off.
They were waiting to go home after the end of classes. Police officials said 11 girls, all students of the university, were killed.
Twenty-two injured people, most of them students, were taken to a nearby hospital. Doctors described the condition of three of them as serious.
Several girls sustained severe burn injuries as the explosion triggered a fire in the bus. Footage on television showed flames and black smoke emerging from the bus, which was reduced to a blackened heap of metal. Its roof was blown off and hung over the front.
Security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation. The blast caused panic in the area and the university was evacuated.
(With Additional Inputs From PTI)
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