QUETTA, Pakistan, Aug. 11 (UPI) — At least two people were killed in a roadside bomb attack in the city of Quetta, in southwestern Pakistan’s Balochistan province, according to reports.
The device was planted near a police station in the Gawalmandi area of Quetta, the provincial capital. One police officer was among the dead, Xinhua news agency reports. Five others, including two police officers, were injured.
Local media reported militants detonated the bomb remotely before fleeing the scene.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but in June a provincial legislator in Balochistan, speaking on condition of anonymity, said extremist groups operating in the region hold ideology similar to that of the Islamic State.
The city of Quetta has been a common setting for such attacks.
In March 2014, a bomb attack there killed at least 11 people — the same day a suicide bomber targeting a police convoy outside Peshawar killed nine people.
Last October, eight Shia Muslims of the minority Hazara community died in Quetta after two gunmen on motorcycles attacked the bus in which they rode with automatic weapons fire.
Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan to the west, has also seen sectarian attacks against its population of Zikri Muslims. In August 2014, militants on motorcycles killed six Zikris during prayers at a mosque in the Awaran district of northeastern Balochistan. Hardline extremist group Lashkar-e-Khurasan claimed responsibility.
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