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Five people, including two cops, were killed and 38 others injured on Tuesday, 30 July in a powerful blast targeting a police vehicle in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's troubled Balochistan province.
The blast took place close to a police vehicle at the Bacha Khan Chowk in the remit of the City Police Station, Quetta's Deputy Inspector-General of Police Abdul Razzaq Cheema said.
“The bomb went off as soon as SHO Shaffat got down from his vehicle,” he said. The condition of the SHO is said to be critical.
Cheema said it was too early to confirm whether it was a suicide attack or the blast was caused by a remotely triggered device.
Earlier, police officials had said terrorists had planted explosives in a motorcycle and parked it near the police vehicle before it was detonated. A contingent of law enforcement agencies threw a security cordon around the area as rescuers continued evacuations.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.
Home Minister Mir Zia Langove said the government would not be cowed down by such attacks and the mission to purge the province of the menace of terrorism would continue.
Balochistan has been wrecked by ethnic, sectarian and separatist violence for more than a decade.
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