In the northeastern district of Balochistan, Qila Saifullah, a bomb blast claimed the lives of six students of Madressah Imdadul Uloom Arabia and left four injured.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Asif Ghalzai said the students of the madressah, during the initial process of investigations, had revealed that on the night before the incident took place a person came to stay as a guest at the seminary. However he left the madressah, leaving behind some of his luggage.
Early next morning when the students were checking the belongings, the blast took place. In response to a question they said at the time of the explosion there were 10 students in the room. Police took immediate action and arrested the accused, who turned out to be a policeman in Afghanistan and had been trained along with Kashmiri Jihadi groups. He is known to be an expert in bomb making. This information was revealed by DIG Zhob Abdul Ghafoor Kasi at a press conference in Quetta.
DIG Kasi said the incident occurred on December 3. The police obtained necessary information from the administration of the madressah and after cordoning the exit and entrance routes, arrested the accused from a place called Karang. Police patrol headed by ASI Muhammad Isa and policeman Amin arrested the accused Abdul Khaliq, son of Abdul Wahab.
Meanwhile, Caretaker Balochistan Chief Minister Sardar Muhammad Saleh Bhootani has said the process of elections will be completed through dialogue, and military will not be called in to any part of the province.
The chief minister said he would hold meetings with all political, social and tribal leaders and every possible step would be taken to hold free, fair and transparent polls. He said he had no plans of sticking to the office, adding that the process of development in the province would continue.
He maintained that the caretaker setup did whatever it could for holding elections in a free, fair and transparent manner and all available resources would be utilized to achieve the purpose. He said there was no need of keeping political parties in doubts and interference from any intelligence agency or political party would not be tolerated. The final lists will be those that will be prepared in the light of the votes cast by the public, he added.
Sardar Bhootani said he met President Musharraf some days back and the president had asked him to utilize all available resources for the development and progress of the province.
The caretaker chief minister said Rs80 million would be spent on the development of Quetta district. He said for doing away with the problem of shortage of water, approval had been given for the construction of 200 dams. In the first phase 100 dams will be built at an approximate cost of Rs3-4 billion.
Sardar Bhootani said under the department of irrigation, Balochistan, Rs10 billion were being spent. An amount of Rs5 billion had been allocated for cementing water canals and ponds while a handsome amount fixed for development of the agriculture sector.
The chief minister said five cadet colleges had started functioning in Balochistan and three more would soon be established. He said six polytechnic institutes would also be set up in the province.
In response to a question Sardar Muhammad Saleh Bhootani said the caretaker setup had no plans to stick to power.
In Balochistan the process of scrutiny of nomination papers has completed. For the 14 National Assembly seats nomination forms of 254 people have been accepted whereas those of 55 candidates rejected. For the provincial and national assemblies, 1,277 candidates have been declared eligible. For the three reserved seats of the National Assembly, 22 candidates had filed their nomination papers. Papers of 16 women candidates were accepted, while those of six were rejected.
For the 51 general seats of Balochistan Assembly, 1,012 candidates had filed their papers out of which 983 candidates’ papers were accepted. As many as 112 nominations were rejected while seven candidates withdrew their papers.
For the eleven seats reserved for women in the Balochistan Assembly overall 53 nominations were filed. For the three seats reserved for minorities 36 nominations were submitted. Twenty-one of these were accepted.