Fifteen held after Pakistan bus blast

QUETTA: Pakistani police arrested 15 suspects in connection with a deadly bomb blast on a passenger bus in the country's increasingly volatile southwest, officials said.

At least 12 people were killed and 19 injured Sunday when the powerful device exploded on a bus travelling from Quetta, the capital of restive Baluchistan province, to Lahore in the neighbouring province of Punjab.

"We have arrested 15 people and also taken the driver of the bus into custody for investigation," Baluchistan police chief Chaudhary Mohammad Yaqub told AFP.

"Police came to the conclusion that the bus bomb blast may be the fallout of the current wave of sabotage activities in Baluchistan," he said.

Sparsely-populated Baluchistan is in the grip of a sporadic insurgency waged by tribesmen who have targeted railway lines, gas pipelines and government and military installations. Quetta, Pakistan, Tuesday, AFP