Balochistan blast kills 6, injures 40

At least six people including two children were killed and about 40 were injured in a powerful explosion that rocked Pakistan’s western province of Balochistan, officials said.

The blast ripped through several shops at Quetta Road, a market in Dera Allah Yar, the headquarters of Jaffarabad district.
Two children were among the dead. Forty injured persons were taken to a nearby hospital. Officials described the condition of 15 of them as serious.

The bomb appeared to have been planted in a rickshaw parked at the roadside, according to initial police reports, adding that around a dozen shops were damaged in the vicinity.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Balochistan has been rocked by sectarian, ethnic and militant violence since last year.

Earlier this year, nearly 200 Shia Hazaras were killed in two bomb attacks in Quetta, the provincial capital.The explosion occurred near a bus terminal on the highway that leads to the province’s capital Quetta.