Pakistan blast kills 11 people near mine, officials say

14/2/2025 15:19

A bomb targeting a vehicle carrying coal miners in southwestern Pakistan killed at least 11 people and wounded six others, local officials said on Friday.



The truck had brought the workers to a mine in the Harnai area of Balochistan province, where Pakistan is battling a separatist insurgency.



"An improvised explosive device was planted at the road side which exploded when truck carting coal miners reached the site," a paramilitary official said.

The official, who declined to be identified, added that it may have been a remote operated device.



No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.



The region's deputy commissioner, Hazrat Wali Agha, said 17 miners were in the truck when the bomb went off.



A doctor at the local hospital said two of the wounded are in critical condition.



Mineral-rich Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has been the scene of a decade-old insurgency by separatist ethnic Baloch groups. Islamist militants also operate in the area.