Bomb kills 11, injures 27 in Pakistani city

QUETTA, Pakistan - A powerful bomb exploded next to an army truck in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, killing at least 11 people and injuring at least 27, officials said.

The bomb, weighing at least 4kg, had been attached to a bicycle, officials said.

A shadowy nationalist group, the Baluch Liberation army (BLA), claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying that the army personnel were its target.

Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest but most backward province, borders Afghanistan and is awash with smuggled weapons and drugs.

The blast in the centre of the city wrecked the army truck and at least eight other vehicles. At least 10 shops in a business district were also damaged, witnesses said.

Human body parts and blood were splattered around the busy square, which was sealed off by the security forces.

"It was a mighty explosion," said Abdullah, a witness who gave only one name. "I saw people screaming and running and the dead and the wounded strewn on the road."

Several victims were killed on the spot, and others died in hospital, doctors said.

Officials said two Pakistan soldiers were among the dead, while at least four others were among the wounded.

Naeemullah Khan said his father, a shopkeeper, was killed in the blast.

"He was badly wounded and was covered with blood. I rushed him to hospital, but doctors couldn't save his life," he said, wailing.

"Civilians are not our target," the BLA's spokesman Azad Baluch told reporters by telephone from his hide-out. "The bombing is a warning to the government to stop the construction of new cantonments and Gawadar (deep-sea) port in Baluchistan."

The BLA had claimed similar attacks in the past.

Information Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed denounced what he called "a heinous act of terrorism".

"The people responsible will not go unpunished," he said.

"The terrorists want to destabilise the country and create anarchy over here, but they will fail in their designs."

Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, has suffered a spate of terror attacks in recent years targeting Westerners, religious minorities and government officials.

Police blame most attacks on Islamic extremists furious over the government's support for the United States and the ousting of the hardline Taleban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan.

But militant Baluch nationalists demanding greater political and economic rights have also launched attacks in the province.

Officials say the nationalists lack popular support and were backed only by handful of tribal chiefs opposed to the development.

Baluchistan is a home to hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees and Pakistani security forces have deployed thousands of troops along the Afghan frontier to stop cross-border movements by the Afghan Taleban and smugglers.

The Taleban enjoy huge support in the Islamic schools of this province, which are mainly run by Pashtun clerics. Most of the Taleban are also Pashtuns.

- REUTERS