Bomb Blast Kills Three in Southwest Pakistan

W460

Three people were killed and 20 injured when a bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded Sunday in Pakistan's restive southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said.

The bomb went off in the town of Sibi 130 kilometers (81 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Quetta.

Senior police official Ghulam Ali Baluch, who gave the casualty toll, said two of the injured are in critical condition.

"The bomb was planted in a motorbike. We are investigating the possible targets but we have not found any specific target yet," Baluch said.

Senior administration official Akbar Hussain Durrani confirmed the incident.

Nobody has claimed responsibility as yet but Baluch separatists demanding greater autonomy have been waging an insurgency for years.

Resource-rich Baluchistan is the largest of Pakistan's four provinces, but its roughly seven million inhabitants have long complained they do not receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth.

Rebels began their fifth insurgency against the state in 2004, with hundreds of soldiers and militants killed in the fighting since then.

A prominent Pakistani rights activist was shot dead in the port city of Karachi late Friday, minutes after she hosted a seminar on abuses in Baluchistan.

Human rights groups have long accused security forces and intelligence agencies of serious abuses in the province. They deny the allegations.

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