3 killed, over dozen injured in Balochistan IED explosion

At least three people, including a 12-year-old, were killed and more than a dozen were injured in an IED explosion in Chaman area of Pakistan's restive Balochistan province on Saturday.

Dawn quoted Chaman Assistant Commissioner Yasir Dashti as saying that the explosion took place in Balochistan's Qilla Abdullah district. One of those killed include a leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Maulana Muhammad Hanif.

Hanif who was critically injured, succumbed to his injuries while he was being taken to the hospital.

Police said Hanif was the target of the attack which took place on Taj Road in Chaman. The IED was planted in a motorcycle parked on the roadside.

This is not the first time when JUI-F have been targeted in the attack. Dawn reported that in May 2017, JUI-F leader and former Senate deputy chairman Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri had suffered injuries in a suicide attack on his convoy in the Mastung area.

In another attack in 2014, party chief Maulana Fazur Rehman had survived a suicide attack in Quetta.