Nine Killed In Bombing, Bus Attack In Pakistan

At least three people were killed, including an opposition politician, and seven others injured in a bomb blast on September 28 in Pakistan’s southwestern town of Chaman in the province of Balochistan.

Police officials said the bomb was planted in a motorcycle parked outside the office of a religious party in Chaman, which is located near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

Officials said the bomb detonated remotely when Maulana Mohammad Hanif, the leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a right-wing religious party, was exiting the building, killing Hanif and two other men.

“Maulana Muhammad Hanif was the target of the bomb blast,” senior police officer Muhammad Iqbal said.

Hanif, whose party opposes Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government, was planning an anti-government march on the country’s capital, Islamabad, next month.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, which damaged nearby buildings and shops.

Attacks are common in Balochistan where separatists have for decades fought a low-level insurgency against the government.

In a separate incident on September 28, six people were killed and four others injured when gunmen opened fire on a bus in Pakistan’s northwestern Hangu district.

The district police officer, Ehsan Ullah, told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that the motive behind the attack was a personal dispute. He said women and children were among the dead.

The bus was traveling from Hangu city to Zargari village in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province when it came under fire in Zargari, the police official said.

The police said raids were being conducted to arrest the assailants.