At least 11 dead in Pakistan explosion
QUETTA, Pakistan: An explosion targeting a police vehicle in Pakistan’s southwestern Quetta city on Friday killed at least 11 people and injured around 20
The explosion occurred in front Quetta, which is capital of mineralrich southern Balochistan, a province that is rife with separatist and Islamist insurgency.
“Eleven people have died... and at least 20 others are injured,” Fareed Ahmed, medical superintendent at Civil Hospital told Agence France-Presse, saying the earlier in the morning.
Four policemen were among the dead, while three others remain in critical condition, he said.
Police surgeon Dr Ali Mardan
Police said that their vehicle was targeted in the attack, but that the nature of the explosion was not yet known.
“The blast targeted a police pick-up Pakistani paramedics push a stretcher with an injured blast victim at a in front of the IG (Inspector Gen destroyed in the explosion,” Moham
Pakistan has been battling Islamist and nationalist insurgencies in Balochistan since 2004, with hundreds of soldiers and militants
Bordering Iran and Afghanistan, it is the largest of Pakistan’s four prov- inces, but its roughly seven million inhabitants have long complained they do not receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth.
A greater push towards peace and development by Pakistani authorities has reduced the violence considerably in recent years.
The push includes starting work on a massive Chinese infrastructure project—the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor—which gives Beijing a route to the Arabian Sea through Balochistan’s deep sea port of Gwadar.
Beijing is ramping up investment in its South Asian neighbour as part of a plan unveiled in 2015 that will link its far-western Xinjiang region to Gwadar port in Balochistan with a series of infrastructure, power and transport upgrades.