At least 1 killed, 14 injured as Pakistan rocked by separate blasts
Islamabad, Sep 30 (EFE).- At least one person were killed and 14 wounded on Friday in two explosions in different places in Pakistan, as one of the blasts took place in a shop, while a suicide bomber blew himself after being arrested by security forces.
The first explosion took place in a shop in the city of Kohlu – situated in the restive southwestern province of Balochistan – killing one person and wounding 14, as per information given to EFE by local police officer Rasheed Khan.
The causes of the blast are not known yet and no group has claimed responsibility for it so far.
The business was run by a man from the eastern Punjab province, Khan said in potentially important information, as the area is home to an armed separatist insurgency by local ethnic group.
Video footage of the blast showed thick dust and smoke rising from the shop, while locals rushed to the site to help the victims.
Provincial home affairs adviser Ziaullah Langau strongly condemned the attack and urged authorities to expedite the probe.
In a separate incident, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the city of Mardan in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when security forces stopped him on the way to a police station.
The assailant detonated an explosive vest he was wearing and was killed in the explosion, although it is not clear whether anyone else was wounded.
According to local media, the attack was claimed by a recently established militant group from the eastern Sindh province, which has previously threatened Chinese citizens over the allegation that Beijing is plundering the region’s natural resources.
The incidents come two day after at least one Chinese national was killed and two others were wounded when a gunman opened fire in a dental clinic in Karachi, the capital of Sindh.
The Balochistan province, which is Pakistan’s largest and least populated state and shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran, witnesses regular violence by armed separatist groups, Taliban factions and Islamist terror groups. It is one of the most underdeveloped areas of the country despite being rich in natural resources.
Sindh has also witnessed a spike in insurgency in recent years due to separatist sentiments. EFE
aa-mvg/ia
