15 killed, 20 injured in blast at mosque in Pakistan's Quetta

A powerful blast inside a mosque in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province on Friday killed at least 15 people, including an Imam and a senior police officer, and left 20 others injured, three days after a bomb explosion claimed two lives in Quetta. The nature of the explosion, which occurred inside the mosque in the Ghousabad neighborhood, was not immediately known, Dawn newspaper reported.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Amanullah was among the 15 people killed in the incident, Quetta Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Abdul Razzaq Cheema said. Twenty others were also injured in the blast, the report said.

Law enforcement agencies have cordoned off the area. Meanwhile, an emergency has been declared at all hospitals in the area.

The TV footage showed debris and shattered glass spread on the floor of the mosque. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast.

Pakistan military's media wing ISPR said that troops of the Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan have reached the site and were carrying out joint search operations with the police. "Every possible assistance be given to police & civil administration. Those who targeted innocents in a mosque can never be true Muslim," the ISPR quoted army chief General Qamar Bajwa as saying.

Reacting to the incident, Balochistan Home Minister Zia Langove condemned it, saying "terrorists were scared of Pakistan's development". "Internal and external enemies are making failed efforts to create panic and unrest in the country," he said in a statement.

He said that "defeated terrorists will never be allowed to succeed". The blast occurred three days after two men were killed and over a dozen injured in a blast near a vehicle of the security forces in Quetta.