The blast left at least 16 others hurt.

Police told The Dawn that unknown people had planted an improvised explosive device (IED) near the main gate of Science College and detonated it with a remote control at 9.40 pm local time (GMT+5), leaving four people dead and 16 others injured.

Update: The death toll in Quetta blast has reached six as two more persons succumbed to their injuries in a hospital on Friday, local media outlets reported.

They said the target of the blast was leaders and workers of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-Ideological group) who had come to attend Shuhada Conference organised by the party’s student wing.

“The powerful explosion took place when the participants of the conference were coming out of the college at the conclusion of the conference,” a spokesman for the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) was quoted as saying by The Dawn.

According to reports, the deceased and the injured were all seminary students and workers of the JUI-Ideological group.

Provincial emir of the party Maulana Abdul Qadir Luni, Maulana Mehmood-ul-Hussan Kazmi, Maulana Abdul Sattar Chishti and other leaders escaped unhurt in the blast as they had left the college premises just before the bomb went off, reports The Dawn.

Police rushed to the spot shortly after the blast.

“We have received four bodies and 19 injured,” Dr Javed Ahmed, medical superintendent of the civil hospital told The Dawn, adding that the condition of four injured was serious.

The bomb disposal squad collected evidence from the site of the blast.

“It was a remote-controlled IED,” a senior official of the BDS told Dawn News, adding that the device was planted close to a car which was parked near the main gate of the college.

The blast left several vehicles damaged.