Bomb attack on bakery in southwest Pakistan kills 1, injures 6

QUETTA, Pakistan — A bomb exploded at a bakery in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, killing at least one person and injuring six others, including a woman and a child, police said on Saturday.

Police officer Qaseem Shah said the bomb ripped through a shop in the main bazaar in Awaran district. He said “anti-state elements”, a reference to Baloch separatists, left the explosive device under a counter and it was detonated remotely.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Baloch separatist groups have claimed attacks in public spaces and against security forces in the past.

Balochistan has long been the scene of a low-level insurgency led by the Balochistan Liberation Army and other small separatist groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. Although Pakistan claims to have suppressed the insurgency, violence in the province has persisted.

Attempts to reach a BLA spokesperson for comment were not immediately successful.