loading…
At least 4 people were killed and 20 others injured in an explosion at a market in Pakistan. Photo/Illustration/Sindonews
KARACHI – At least four people were killed and more than 20 injured in an explosion in Pakistan southwest on Sunday (26/2/2023), as reported by police and local media.
The explosion took place in a crowded market in the remote Barkhan district in southwestern Balochistan province.
Police confirmed that at least four people were killed and 20 injured were taken to a government hospital.
Police said a bomb was planted on a motorbike parked outside a saloon, adding that the condition of many of the injured was critical, Anadolu said.
Read: US Returns 2 Detainees of Guantanamo Bay Prison to Pakistan
Visuals shown on local television station Dawn News show rescue workers and local residents transferring the injured on a road littered with broken glass, pieces of rock, clothing and shoes to ambulances.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but ethnic Baloch separatists and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, several militant groups in Pakistan, have long targeted security forces in all the country’s provinces.
The large Balochistan province, which is also thought to encompass parts of neighboring Iran and Afghanistan, is strategically important because of its rich reserves of copper, zinc and natural gas.
The province is also a major route for the $64 billion Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (PCEC) mega-project, which aims to connect China’s strategically important northwestern Xinxiang province to Balochistan’s Gwadar port via a network of roads, rail and pipelines to cargo, oil, and gas transportation.
Read: Afghanistan Will Reopen Main Border Door with Pakistan
(ian)
