Improvised explosive kills three and wounds seven in Pakistan’s southwest Baluchistan province

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This article was published 03/05/2024 (499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A blast from an improvised explosive device killed three people and wounded seven on Friday in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, a police officer said.

Footage from the scene moments before the attack shows a motorcyclist traveling alongside the car, attaching something to it, and then riding off. The car exploded, scattering civilians and traffic.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the blast in Khuzdar, which is on the main highway connecting the provincial capital Quetta with the port city of Karachi in neighboring Sindh province.

It’s the second attack to strike Khuzdar in less than a month.

District police official Ghulam Mustafa Rind said a prominent journalist was among those killed in the Friday afternoon explosion.

Muhammad Sadique Mengal was president of the Khuzdar Press Club and a member of the religious JUI-F political party. His vehicle reached Chamrok Chowk when the IED was detonated, said Rind.

Last year, Mengal told the English-language daily Dawn newspaper about the dangers of working in Khuzdar, which Reporters Without Borders once ranked as one of the top 10 most dangerous cities for journalists.

In 2014, rights group Amnesty International described Khuzdar as a “graveyard for journalists” because of the threats and attacks on media workers.

Also Friday, the Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for a double landmine blast that killed one person and injured 18 in coal-rich Duki, also in Baluchistan.

Baluch separatist groups initially wanted a greater share of provincial resources, but later initiated an insurgency for independence from the central government.