Bus bomb kills at least 13 in Baluchistan

QUETTA: A bomb exploded on a bus in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 13 people and wounding 20, the latest incident in worsening separatist violence in troubled Baluchistan province, officials said.

The blast in a pass at Kolpur, about 60 km south of Baluchistan's capital Quetta, came hours after eight people were killed when suspected tribal militants fired rockets into a town in the province near the country's main gas field.

Hospital officials said there were 13 dead at Quetta hospital and 20 wounded. Baluchistan police chief Chaudhry Mohammed Yaqoob said the toll could be higher as he had reports that people were still trapped in the wreckage of the bus.

He blamed Baluch tribal militants who have stepped up an insurgency seeking greater autonomy and more benefit from natural gas resources in the province, which is Pakistan's main source.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told Reuters the blast was caused by a bomb that may have been hidden in a bag placed under a seat of the bus, which had been travelling to the eastern town of Lahore.

Yaqoob said it was apparently a time bomb that exploded in the rear of the vehicle. "A man may have come on the bus and left it there and it exploded later," he said.

The bus bombing followed two passenger train derailments in the past week that killed three people and injured dozens.

The government has ordered inquiries into the train incidents. Officials said the first derailment a week ago appeared to have been caused by sabotage and have not ruled out this in the second, which occurred on Saturday.

The bus attack was the worst incident blamed on tribal militants since they attacked Pakistan's largest gas field in the Sui area of Baluchistan last January, killing 15 people and disrupting fuel supplies to industry for over a week.

On Saturday, tribal militants fired more than 100 rockets into the town of Sui killing eight people. Police said this attack damaged 16 houses and killed two military guards and six civilians and followed a similar rocket blitz on Friday and Saturday in the nearby town of Dera Bugti.

Sui is the site of Pakistan's main gas field and is about 720 km southwest of Islamabad.

The area's senior administrator, Abdul Samad Lasi, said militants also blew up a section of gas pipeline and a water pipeline in a gas field in Dera Bugti overnight, while a landmine blast on Sunday morning killed a civilian in a nearby district.

Speaking earlier in response to the rocket attack, Sherpao said security forces were currently limiting their activity to defensive action but warned that "this strategy can be changed for the protection of gas installation and local population".

"Attacks on national installations cannot be tolerated." Quetta, Pakistan, Monday (Reuters)