In a shocking turn of events during a Pakistan Super League (PSL) exhibition match, an explosion near the ongoing contest at the Nawab Akbar Bugti Stadium in Quetta led to the halting of the match for some time. The explosion reportedly took place near the Police Lines area which has left as many as five people injured.
Several of the country's top cricketers including captain Babar Azam and former skipper Shahid Afridi were reportedly taken to the safety of the dressing room after what seems to be a case of a terror attack. A senior police offer, as per news agency PTI, said that rescue has been completed at the site of the explosion with people having sustained injuries moved to the hospital.
The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Sunday. It stated that the security officials were targeted in the blast.
Match was stopped as a precautionary measure: Police
It is worth highlighting that the exhibition fixture between the PSL sides Quetta Gladiators and Peshwar Zalmi was organised by the Pakistan Cricket Board. This was after the Baloch fans demanded that even Quetta gets to host a PSL match.
"As soon as the explosion happened, as a precautionary measure, the match was stopped and players taken to the dressing room for a while. Later, after the green signal, the match resumed," the police official was quoted in the same PTI report.
Meanwhile, a different report has emeged in Pakistan which suggest that the match hadn't been halted due to the blast but because of disturbance from crowd. However, nothing has yet come from official sources. It was a packed stadium in Quetta along expected lines and some miscreants, it is said, pelted stones on the ground.
Nevertheless, the actual contest between bat and the ball lived up the hype and the home team beat Peshawar Zalmi by three runs in a thriller of a game.
(With Inputs From PTI)