At least nine people were killed and 35 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a military convoy in Pakistan’s western city of Quetta yesterday, police and hospital officials said.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Muhammad Khurasani said that the group, also known as the TTP, was responsible for the attack in the capital of the province of Baluchistan.
The bombing was the latest in a region which is home to the planned route of a $46bn China-Pakistan economic corridor.
“The suicide bomber was riding a bicycle close to a Frontier Corps vehicle,” said senior police official Imtiaz Shah, referring to the branch of Pakistan’s paramilitary forces targeted in the attack.
At least three Frontier Corps personnel were killed and 15 were injured in the attack that occurred in the city centre in the late afternoon, Frontier Corps spokesman Khan Wasey said.
A 12-year-old girl was also among the dead, said Ajab Khan, a doctor at the city’s Civil Hospital, where the casualties were taken.