Police personnel has been identified as DSP Haji Aman Ullah. PHOTO: EXPRESS

QUETTA: At least 14 worshippers – including a deputy superintendent of police and pesh imam – were martyred while 21 others sustained injuries in a powerful blast in a mosque-cum-seminary in the Ghosabad area of Satellite Town, Quetta on Friday evening.



The blast targeted the worshippers at Madrassa Darul Uloom Al Sharia while they were offering Maghrib prayers. The explosion also ripped the doors off and shattered the windows of the seminary.



The DSP was identified as Haji Amanullah, who was posted at the police training centre, while the pesh imam as Hafiz Hamdullah.



A heavy contingent of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and rescue workers rushed to the spot and transported the bodies and injured to Civil Hospital, Quetta while the Balochistan government has declared emergency at all hospitals in Quetta.



The LEAs cordoned off the area and started collecting forensic evidence from the mosque.



“We were offering prayers when a powerful explosion occurred that knocked me down. I quickly got up and ran out of the mosque,” said one of the injured persons, Azmatullah. “Not even the worship places are safe.”



Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan has strongly condemned the blast and ordered strict security arrangements across the province while Chief Secretary Capt (retd) Fazeel Asghar has called an emergency law and order meeting.



Home Minister Mir Zia Langove, who reached the site along with the LEAs, said, “It is not clear whether it was a suicide attack or an IED was planted in the mosque. The LEAs are doing their job and soon we will know the nature of the attack.”



However, he hinted at the possibility of a suicide attack.



Talking to journalists at the crime scene, Langove said, “Terrorists have been looking for soft targets, hence they targeted innocent worshipers.”



The home minister vowed not to spare the perpetrators behind the attack “on innocent worshippers”.



Last month, the martyred DSP’s son was also killed in a targeted attack on Quetta’s Sariyab Road.



Quetta Deputy Inspector General of Police Abdul Razzaq Cheema refuted any connection of today’s (Friday) blast with the killing of Amanullah’s son, saying “we can’t link both incidents”.



“It has not yet been confirmed that DSP Amanullah was the prime target of the mosque attack,” Cheema said. “We would be able to comment once the investigations are complete.”



No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far while this is the second blast in the first 10 days of 2020.



On Tuesday, an IED attached to a motorcycle parked near a Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle on McCaughey Road in Quetta exploded, killing two men and injuring over a dozen – including FC personnel.



Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa said those who targeted innocent people in a mosque can never be true Muslims.



According an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) tweet, the FC troops reached the blast site in Quetta and cordoned off the entire area.



The military’s media wing stated that the law enforcement and investigation agencies along with the local police started a joint search operation while the injured were evacuated to the hospital.