Policeman killed in Pakistan suicide attack

A suicide bomber targeting a senior police official has killed a policeman and wounded five others in Pakistan's southern province of Balochistan.


The bomber drove in a car packed with explosives and blew it up outside the home of the officer in Quetta, the main town in Balochistan.


Police said that Wazir Khan Nasir and his family were safe, though his house was damaged by the blast.


Balochistan has been at the centre of a decade-long separatist insurgency.


No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but reports say that Mr Nasir, a deputy inspector-general of police, has played a key role in arresting militants and Baloch insurgents in the area.


The police said the constable on duty outside Mr Nasir's house had been killed in the attack.


"The constable on duty was killed and five people were injured. It was a car suicide attack," Daud Juneju, Quetta police chief told AFP news agency.


"The officer and his family are safe, the house was badly damaged. The suicide bomber was trying to hit his house," he added.


Taliban militants and Islamist groups also operate around Balochistan's provincial capital and northern districts.


BBC