Eight killed, 40 injured in Quetta Church bombing

QUETTA: At least eight people  were killed and 40 other injured in a suicide attack on a Church on  Zarghoon road, according to Geo TV  on Sunday.

Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraq Bugti told Geo News a suicide bomber was gunned down near the entrance of the Methodist Church and the other blew himself up in the courtyard of the Church after being shot and injured by police.

Police said two attackers managed to escape and they were hunting for them .

The minister later said in a tweet that the forces took 16 minutes  to complete the operation 

IG Muazzim Ansari said  the police successfully neutralized  the attackers at the entrance of the Church where  400 worshipers  were present. 

Police and paramilitary forces surrounded the  Church   after the explosion  and heavy gunfire took place.

TV footage showed the forces evacuating   men, women and children who were attending the Sunday prayers.

The area was reverberating with heavy gunfire , and an state of emergency was declared in the hospitals of the provincial capital. 

The explosion was so loud that it was heard all across the city.

Heavy contingent of Frontier Crops and  Balochistan police were taking part in the operation, private TV channels reported.   

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has condemned the attack and ordered the authorities to  provide assistance to the victims  .

Quetta has witnessed a surge in terror attacks in the past few months.

 Last month, DIG Hamid Shakeel Sabir was killed in a suicide attack. He was the third police officer in the past four months to be killed  in a terror attack.

On October 18, eight policemen were killed after unidentified attackers rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into their truck. Over 20 others were wounded in the bombing.

In August this year, a massive suicide explosion, targeting Pakistan Army personnel in Quetta, left 15 people dead – including seven civilians – and injured at least 20 people.

In June this year, fourteen people, including seven policemen, were killed and 21 injured in a suicide car bombing near the office of the inspector general of police Balochistan on Gulistan Road.