Five Dead in Landmine Blast in Southwest Pakistan

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At least five people were killed and one injured when a pick-up truck hit a landmine in the southwestern province of Baluchistan on Monday, officials said.

The incident happened in the Chattar area of Dera Murad district, around 160 miles (257 kilometers) southeast of the provincial capital of Quetta.

"Five people were killed when a passenger pick-up stumbled upon a landmine," local police official Gulab Shah told AFP.

Pick-up truck is the most common mode of public transport in that part of the province.

He said four people died on the spot while the fifth was pronounced dead by the doctors when taken to a nearby government-run hospital.

The incident was confirmed by another senior police official, Saleem Lahri, who said the injured was in a critical condition.

"The injured is in critical condition, we are trying to save his life and if he survives we will have to shift him to a bigger hospital for treatment," Dr. Ghaffar Ahmed, of the government-run district hospital, told AFP.

Nobody has claimed responsibility but the area is one of the most restive parts of the province where separatists have regularly attacked security personnel and state infrastructure.

On Sunday, an apparent rebel attack on a key power line plunged around 80 percent of Pakistan into darkness.

Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest but least developed and most sparsely populated province, has been wracked for decades by a separatist insurgency that was revived in 2004.

The separatists believe that locals do not receive a fair share of the province's energy and mineral wealth, while rights groups accuse the government of extra-judicial detentions and killings of activists.

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