QUETTA: A suicide bomber blew up his car at a check point near a Shia-dominated area in southwest Pakistan late yesterday, killing six people and wounding more than 30, officials said.
The attacker had attempted to drive his vehicle into Hazara Town in Baluchistan province’s capital Quetta, where a recent surge in sectarian unrest has killed scores of Shias, city police chief Zubair Mahmood said.
“He detonated the vehicle when the soldiers at a paramilitary check post near the Shia neighbourhood stopped it,” the police officer said.
The blast left six people dead including a soldier, senior administration official Abdul Mansoor said.
Senior provincial government official Akbar Durrani confirmed the attack and the casualties.
“We have collected details from different hospitals and the death toll is six,” he said, adding that 37 others, including two soldiers, were wounded.
“The bomber was heading to the Shia Hazara community’s area. It was a huge blast heard several kilometres away,” he said, adding that several shops were damaged in the bombing.
Baluchistan is a flashpoint for sectarian violence between Pakistan’s majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shias, who account for 20 percent of the country’s 180 million population.
A bomb planted in a water tanker killed 90 Hazaras in February, and a suicide bombing at a snooker club in January killed 92. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant group banned by the government in 2002, claimed both attacks.
AFP
