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Four wounded in SW Pakistan bomb blast
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QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) – Four people were wounded in a bomb blast in southwest Pakistan on Friday, where businesses closed for a second day to protest against the murder of three separatist politicians, police said.
Protesters torched two private banks, a car and a government building in the town of Turbat after regional parties demanded a strike in Baluchistan province, senior police officer Ghulam Ali Lashari told AFP.
A bomb planted on a motorbike also went off near a military convoy in Turbat wounding three civilians and one policeman, he said.
Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, is rife with militant and sectarian violence.
Riots broke out on Thursday after the bodies of dissident Baluch politicians were dumped on the outskirts of Turbat. The three politicians had allegedly earlier been picked up by intelligence agents, a party official said.
The politicians were identified as head of the Baluchistan National Party (BNP), Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, his deputy Lala Munir Baloch, and Sher Mohammad, deputy secretary general of the Baluchistan Republican Party.
The United Nations expressed "serious concern" over the killings in a rare statement that also conveyed its condolences to the families of the deceased.
The late BNP chief played an important role in securing the release of American UN official John Solecki, two months after he was abducted in the Baluchistan capital Quetta, the party official said.
Solecki, who was purportedly held by the little-known Baluchistan Liberation United Front, was released last Saturday.
Hundreds of people have died in insurgent violence in Baluchistan since 2004, when nationalist tribes rose up demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's natural resources.
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QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) – Four people were wounded in a bomb blast in southwest Pakistan on Friday, where businesses closed for a second day to protest against the murder of three separatist politicians, police said.
Protesters torched two private banks, a car and a government building in the town of Turbat after regional parties demanded a strike in Baluchistan province, senior police officer Ghulam Ali Lashari told AFP.
A bomb planted on a motorbike also went off near a military convoy in Turbat wounding three civilians and one policeman, he said.
Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, is rife with militant and sectarian violence.
Riots broke out on Thursday after the bodies of dissident Baluch politicians were dumped on the outskirts of Turbat. The three politicians had allegedly earlier been picked up by intelligence agents, a party official said.
The politicians were identified as head of the Baluchistan National Party (BNP), Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, his deputy Lala Munir Baloch, and Sher Mohammad, deputy secretary general of the Baluchistan Republican Party.
The United Nations expressed "serious concern" over the killings in a rare statement that also conveyed its condolences to the families of the deceased.
The late BNP chief played an important role in securing the release of American UN official John Solecki, two months after he was abducted in the Baluchistan capital Quetta, the party official said.
Solecki, who was purportedly held by the little-known Baluchistan Liberation United Front, was released last Saturday.
Hundreds of people have died in insurgent violence in Baluchistan since 2004, when nationalist tribes rose up demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's natural resources.
