A serving officer of the Pakistan Army, who was shot at and wounded by robbers in the city on March 31, died during treatment at a hospital, police and relatives said on Tuesday.
DIG-South Syed Asad Raza said that Major Saad Sheikh was posted at Pakistan Coast Guard in Hub. He said on March 31 he had left his office for Iftar on a motorcycle. The motorbike developed some fault and he took it to a mechanic near Gulbai where armed robbers on a motorbike arrived.
He said that the major was in plain clothes and carrying his weapon. When the robbers saw his weapon they opened indiscriminate fire and fled without any loot.
The wounded major was initially taken to the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi from where he was taken to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Malir. He remained admitted there and died during treatment on Monday.
The DIG said that the army officer suffered four bullet wounds.
Major Sheikh is survived by a widow and two children including a son.
In the first incident, a policeman was killed and 15 others were injured when a blast occurred at a mosque in the Kuchlak area of the province's Quetta district on Monday.
“People were offering Maghrib prayers when the explosion took place at the mosque,” a police official said.
In another incident, two people were killed and five others were injured in a bomb blast in a marketplace near Umar Farooq Chowk in Khuzdar town on Monday.
A senior police official said the blast took place when there was a crowd, including women and children in the market for Eid shopping.
“Two people have been killed and five others injured in the explosion,” the senior officer said, adding that police and other law enforcement forces rushed to the explosion site and shifted the bodies and injured to Khuzdar Teaching Hospital.
Bomb Disposal Squad officials were busy investigating both sites and initial reports suggested both blasts were committed through improvised explosive devices (IED) planted motorbikes and parked near the Umar Farooq Chowk and the mosque
“It seems, the motorbike IEDs were detonated with a remote control,” the official said.
No banned outfit has claimed responsibility for the blasts so far, but in the recent weeks this year, there has been a surge in terror attacks by banned outfits and terrorists in the province in which security forces and installations have also been brazenly targeted.
The banned Balochistan Liberation Army has laid claim to having carried out three major terror strikes in the province in recent weeks in Mach town, Gwadar port and a naval base in Turbat in which security forces killed some 17 militants.
