Authorities in Quetta have beefed up security and are questioning more than a dozen suspects in connection with a deadly bomb attack that killed 11 people and injured 21 others, police said on Sunday. "We have taken into custody 16 people for questioning today while 14 were arrested on Saturday," Quetta police chief Rafi Pervez Bhatti told reporters, declining to give their identities.
Bhatti said the suspects were arrested in raids conducted in several districts of Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
On Friday, the bomb, which was fastened to a bicycle, went off close to a military vehicle in a busy market area in the capital of Balochistan province, which has been plagued by a series of attacks.
Most of the people killed were passers-by and vendors. One soldier was also among the victims and two other troops were in hospital with injuries. The soldiers were in the market on a routine shopping visit. Bhatti said police had set up new checkpoints, intensified patrols and banned bicycles at all busy places in the city. "We are creating separate parking zones for bicycles away from busy streets and markets," he said.