SPA - At least 40 people were killed and more than 100 injured in two bomb explosions at the death anniversary conference of a slain Sunni militants' leader in Pakistan's Punjab province Thursday, police and officials said. Minutes after the conference, held at Rashidabad crossing in Multan, ended, the blasts took place at 4.40 a.m. Pakistan Time. "The explosive material weighing six to seven kilograms placed in a white car, parked at the roadside near the conference, was blown up by a remote control," Multan police chief Talat Mehmood said. A damaged motorcycle was also recovered from the site. Condition of three dozens injured people was critical while fifty people, who had sustained minor injuries, were relieved of the Multan's Nishtar Hospital after first aid, hospital's Medical Superintendent Dr Arif Saeed said. The conference was held in connection with the death anniversary of Maulana Azam Tariq, chief of Milat Islamia Pakistan (MIP) and member of Pakistan's Lower House of Parliament, who was gunned down in Islamabad a year back. Police said there was only one blast and the second explosion was caused by the rupture of an electricity transformer, which exploded due to the damage to the high tension wire. "It was not a suicide attack," the Multan police chief said. Dr Saeed said scores of people rushed to the hospital immediately after the explosion to donate blood, therefore, the hospital did not face any shortage of blood. MIP chief Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi visited the hospital and appealed to his followers to remain calm. He demanded of the government to immediately arrest the terrorists before they strike again. Last Friday, thirty-one people were killed in a terrorist attack on a Shiite mosque in Punjab's industrial city of Sialkot.
