Motorbike bomb kills five in southwest Pakistan

At least five people were killed and more than 25 wounded when a bomb planted on a motorcycle hit a police van in southwest Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said.

The remote control-detonated bomb exploded in Quetta, the main town of the oil- and gas-rich Baluchistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, provincial police chief Mohsin Hassan Butt told AFP.

“The target of the attack was a police van, which was parked outside a police station,” said Butt, adding that the dead included two police officers.

“The death toll may increase, as a condition of some of those injured was critical,” Butt said.

A spokesman for the provincial government Liaqat Shahwani confirmed the attack, telling AFP it took place during rush hour in a busy market inside the city.

“Most of those injured were passerby,” Shahwani told AFP.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. Baluchistan, Pakistan’s least developed province, has long been plagued by Islamist militancy, sectarian violence, and a separatist insurgency.