MULTAN – A powerful blast at an eatery in a busy market Monday left three persons, including a child and a teenager, dead and 27 injured, police and hospital officials said.
A three-year-old child Ammar Shah, son of the eatery owner, and two other persons including Sajawal, a resident of Layyah, and an unknown person have died, said Vice Chancellor (VC) Nishtar Medical University (NMU) Dr Ahmad Ijaz Masud.
Dr Ahmed said the six critically injured persons were shifted to the Burns Unit.
Civil Defence Officer Fatima said it seemed to be a cylinder blast fearing that the employees of the Qureshi Tikka Shop might have mishandled the gas cylinders while shifting them through a lifter.
Officials of Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), Bomb Disposal Squad and police inspected the site and collected evidence to confirm the cause.
The blast badly damaged the eatery’s ground floor, while the windowpanes on the first floor were shattered.
Deputy Commissioner Mudassir Riaz Malik and CPO Munir Masud Marth visited the site.
The injured were identified as Shoaib (19), Bashir (60), Rafaqat (38), Waseem (30), Khalil (42), Ahsan Niaz (19), Jahanzeb (22), Altaf (28), Arif (22), Ismail (33), Sajjad (17), Nasir Abbas (28), Muzammil (17), Ashfaq (25), Tajammul (24), Saeed Akhtar (24), Kaleemullah (21), Imran (18), Yousuf (15), Nadeem (25), Farhan (19), Nadeem (23), Behroz (23), Badar (20), Farooq (40), Shazia (29) and Nadeem s/o Hayat (28).
PTI Vice Chairman Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Deputy Mayor Haji Saeed Ansari, NA-156 candidate Amir Saeed Ansari, former MPA Haji Javed Akhtar Ansari, former PML-N MPA Sultana Shaheen, former PML-N MNA Shaheen Shafeeq and other politicians also visited the blast site.
