At least 10 killed by bomb blast in Pakistan’s Balochistan

At least 10 people have been killed and others wounded after a bomb struck a vehicle carrying labourers in southwestern Pakistan.

An improvised explosive device (IED) hit the truck when it was travelling in the Harnai area of Balochistan province on Friday, local officials said.

Security forces have been battling a decades-long rebellion by separatist groups in impoverished Balochistan, with violence in the border regions surging over the past three years.

“Ten mine workers were killed in an attack in Harnai district,” Shahzad Zahri, a senior government official, told AFP news agency.

Officials said the vehicle was carrying coal miners, and that most of the victims were from the country’s northwestern Swat Valley and other areas.

“An improvised explosive device was planted at the roadside which exploded when truck carting coal miners reached the site,” a paramilitary official told the Reuters news agency. The official, who declined to be identified, added that it may have been a remote operated device.

Read more: Al Jazeera