South Asia

8 killed in Rocket Attack in Quetta, SW Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, May 6 (Xinhua) — At least eight people were killed early Friday morning as unknown militants fired rockets at the people doing exercises at a soccer ground in the Hazara town of Quetta, a capital city of Balochistan province in southwest Pakistan, reported local English TV channel Express.

According to the local media reports, the attack took place at about 7 a.m. local time when six to eight unknown militants riding in two cars attacked the people who were doing morning exercises in a soccer ground in the city.

The militants first fired indiscriminately at the people in the ground, then fired three rockets at them, said eyewitnesses.

The attackers fled the scene after a brief fire exchange with the police. Police have cordoned off the area and the dead and injured have been shifted to nearby hospital.

Hospital sources said that some of the injured were in critical condition and the death toll could further rise.

Friday morning’s incident is the third terrorist attack reported in Pakistan since the killing of the al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in the country’s northwest city of Abbottabad in an early Monday morning’s operation conducted by the U.S. special task force. Pakistan Taliban (TTP) vowed to avenge the killing of bin Laden by threatening terrorist attacks in the country.

On Thursday evening, the police in the country’s northwestern Dera Ismail Khan district foiled an attempt by two suicide bombers to attack a checkpoint in the district. Police fired at the two suicide bombers before they reached the checkpoint in a car laden with an estimated 120 kg of explosives. The firing caused a huge blast of the car which killed the two men inside right on the spot.

On Monday afternoon, immediately following the killing of Osama bin Laden, a blast in a mosque in the city of Charsadda in northwestern Pakistan killed four people and injured 11 others as most of them were police or police family members as the mosque is close to a police station in the city.

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