QUETTA: A suicide attacker tried to kill the top elected official in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan on Tuesday, but the chief minister escaped unhurt, officials said.
The bomber wounded nine people after detonating an explosive alongside the motorcade of Nawab Aslam Raisani in Quetta, the capital of a province where separatist and Taliban violence has surged this year.
One person died in the attack, but his identity was not clear and police said they were investigating whether it was the suicide bomber.
"It was a suicide bombing. The convoy of the chief minister was damaged," Quetta administration official Nasim Lehri told Samaa TV.
"The target was the chief minister, most of those injured were policemen," he later told AFP.
Raisani, a wealthy Baluch tribal leader who belongs to the federal government’s main ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), was being driven from his home to the provincial assembly.
"The chief minister was the target, but he remained unhurt," senior police official Salim Lehri told AFP.
"One of the escort cars was damaged and some officials were wounded."
Witnesses said the bomber was on foot and that they heard a loud blast as soon as the motorcade passed, kicking up clouds of dust.
An AFP reporter saw pieces of human flesh on the ground and a damaged white Toyota Landcruiser on the roadside with broken windows and shrapnel holes.
Doctor Noor Mohammad said nine wounded people, including policemen, were brought to hospital and that two were in a serious condition.
The convoy was passing a railway crossing in Saryab Road at the time and an unexploded hand grenade was also found nearby, officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but violence is rising in Baluchistan, one of the most politically tense parts of Pakistan and on the border with Afghanistan and Iran.
In October, Amnesty International called on Pakistan to investigate the alleged torture and killing of more than 40 Baluch political leaders and activists against a backdrop of Pakistani military activities in the province.
Raisani was elected unopposed as chief minister of Baluchistan in April 2008, after President Asif Ali Zardari’s PPP party won general elections.
Hundreds of people have died since rebels rose up in 2004 demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region’s natural oil, gas and mineral resources.
