QUETTA, Pakistan - A bomb believed rigged to a motorcycle exploded outside a bank in southwestern Pakistan and wounded 21 people on Friday, one critically, a medical official said. It was unclear who was behind the bombing outside a branch of the state-owned Allied Bank Ltd., which was open at the time, in Quetta, the capital of insurgency-wracked Baluchistan. “So far I can only confirm that the bomb was planted outside the bank, but we don’t know who carried out this attack,” said Zahid Afaq, Quetta’s deputy police superintendent.
Twenty-one people were wounded in the blast, one critically, said Anwar Kamal, a physician at the Quetta Government Hospital where the victims were brought. The bomb also smashed windows at the bank and destroyed three cars. Police investigating the cause of the blast believe it may have been a bomb tied to a motorcycle parked near the bank, Afaq said. | Likely protesting those high ATM fees |
Baluchistan has witnessed scores of bomb and rocket attacks, most blamed on renegade tribesmen waging a violent campaign for increased government royalties for resources _ such as natural gas _ extracted from the province. Although authorities claim they have quelled the insurgency, the continuing violence has raised fears of a repeat of military operations conducted in the 1970s that killed hundreds of tribesmen. |