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Adviser to chief minister among injured.
Back-to-back blasts on Saturday killed one and injured 11 others, including a senior politician, in Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, officials said.
In the first attack, an explosives-packed motorcycle detonated at a taxi stand in the Sibi district of Balochistan, killing one person and injuring nine others. “Unknown people parked the explosive-laden motorcycle at a taxi stand in Bakhtiarabad town on (the) main Sibi-Jacobabad national highway,” said Mohammad Akhtar, a local administration official.
In the second attack, in the provincial capital Quetta, Abdul Majid Abro, an adviser to the chief minister of the province, received minor injuries along with one of his colleagues. A bomb disposal squad official said that four kilograms of explosives were used in that blast, detonated by remote control.
So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Oil- and gas-rich Balochistan has been badly hit by sectarian violence, coupled with unrest initiated by Baloch rebels who have been fighting since 2004 for political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region’s natural resources.