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Four killed, 42 injured as two blasts hit Pakistan simultaneously

21 June 2012 18:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least four people were killed and 42 others injured in two separate blasts that hit Pakistan almost simultaneously on Thursday evening, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Sources in Peshawar, the largest city in northwest Pakistan, told Xinhua over phone that at least three people including two children were killed and 24 others injured when a blast hit near a shrine in the Hazar Khawani area of the city at about 6:30 p.m. local time.

The bomb, which contained an estimated 10 to 12 kg of explosives, were fixed in a donkey cart parking nearby the shrine, said bomb disposal squad officials.

Almost at the same time, another blast took place near a mosque in Pakistan’s southwest city of Quetta, leaving at least one killed and 18 others wounded, said Hashim Gillzai, Deputy Commission of Quetta, adding that the bomb was fixed on a bicycle parking near a mosque in the Ghosabad area of the city.

Security forces and rescue teams have reached the sites shortly after the two blasts were reported.

All the injured have been shifted to hospitals, said local media reports. Hospital sources in Peshawar said at least ten people were critically injured in the blast and the death toll could further rise.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for the two bomb attacks yet.

The two blasts took place at a time when the country’s National Assembly or the lower house of the parliament is going to vote on Friday afternoon for a new prime minister following the removal of then Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani by the Supreme Court on Tuesday due to his failure to reopen a graft charge against President Asif Ali Zardari at its orders.