Bomb Kills 4, Injures 13 in Southwestern Pakistan

A bomb explosion in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province Tuesday killed at least four people and wounded 13 others.

Police said the explosive device was hidden in a motorcycle parked near an office of the Levies paramilitary force in Chaman, a remote Pakistani town next to the Afghan border.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing. Rescue workers and police said the attack harmed mostly civilians.

Secessionist ethnic Baluch militants often take credit for plotting bomb and other attacks against security forces and government installations in Baluchistan.

Extremists linked to the banned Pakistani Taliban outfit and Islamic State also operate in the natural resource-rich province and have claimed responsibility for some of the recent attacks, including those against the minority Shiite Hazara community.

Pakistani officials allege that fugitive militant leaders have taken refuge in Afghanistan and plot cross-border attacks from there, charges Afghan authorities reject.

Earlier this month, gunmen ambushed a vehicle carrying Pakistan Navy personnel in Baluchistan’s key Gwadar district, killing at least one sailor and seriously wounding two others.

The Baluchistan Liberation Army, which the United States has designated as a global terrorist group, took responsibility for that attack.

Gwadar is home to a Chinese-built and run deep-water port, a centerpiece to the multibillion-dollar infrastructure development project funded by Pakistan’s close ally China as part of Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative.