Blasts Kill One, Injure 11 in SW Pakistan

Back-to-back blasts on Saturday killed one and injured 11 others, including a senior politician, in the southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, officials said.

In first attack, an explosives-packed motorcycle detonated at a taxi stand in the Sibi district of Baluchistan, 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," Mohammad Akhtar, a local administration official, told Agence France Presse.

In the second attack, in the Baluchistan provincial capital of 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 told AFP 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 Baluchistan has been badly hit by sectarian violence, mainly targeting Shiite Muslims from the Hazara ethnic community.

Baluch rebels have also been fighting since 2004 for political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's natural oil, gas and mineral resources.