Pakistan: 13-year-old boy, mother die as ‘toy-like’ device explodes in Punjab province

Islamabad, Oct 12 (IANS) A 13-year-old boy and his mother were killed when a ‘toy-like’ device exploded in Multan in Pakistan’s Punjab province, local media reported.

According to the police, Anas had picked up the speaker-shaped object from a junkyard near his house and took it to his room, where his mother, Nusrat Bibi, was also present, leading Pakistani daily Dawn reported.

Police said the boy was playing with the object as he mistook it for a toy and tried to dismantle it when it went off. According to the police, the boy and his mother suffered critical injuries and died on the spot.

Speaking to Dawn, Multan City Police Officer (CPO) Akthar Farooq said that the initial investigation suggested that the boy had picked up the object from the nearby junkyard. He said the boy could have been checking the object when it exploded. He said police had gathered evidence from the site of the incident.

On September 26, at least 11 people were killed, and 20 others injured after a police checkpost in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province came under a bomb attack, local media reported, citing rescue officials. The fatalities included eight men, two women and a child, rescue officials said.

According to police, the explosion took place at the Aman Mela checkpost, situated near Mughal Kot and Darazinda on the Dera Ismail Khan-Quetta Road, near the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Balochistan border, Dawn reported.

Rescue 1122 spokesperson Bilal Ahmad Faizi said the Darazinda station team rushed to the site after being alerted about the blast and immediately launched rescue operations, Pakistan-based another daily The Express Tribune reported.

He said that additional ambulances and rescue personnel from Karak and Hangu reached the site to assist with the search and rescue operations, The Express Tribune reported. He said that bodies of 11 people killed in the blast were recovered from the site.

–IANS

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