QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A pair of car bombings hours apart in Pakistan’s insurgency-hit southwest killed at least eight people and wounded about two dozen others on Thursday, officials said.
The first attack occurred in a district in Balochistan province, when a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a security convoy, police official Elahi Bakhsh said. Two security personnel were killed, and 23 others were wounded in the attack, he said.
Hours later, another car bomb exploded near the Afghan border in the southwestern city of Chaman, killing six people, said government administrator Imtiaz Ali.
No group claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban and Baloch separatists, and civilians in the province.
The latest attack came two weeks after as supporters of a nationalist party were leaving a rally near Quetta city, killing 13 people.
Pakistan has seen a surge in militant violence in recent years, with most attacks claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The group is separate from, but closely allied with, the Afghan Taliban.
also often stage attacks in Balochistan. The province has long been the scene of a insurgency, with separatists demanding independence from the central government.
