A judge and 12 others were killed Saturday when a powerful bomb exploded inside a courtroom in a southwestern Pakistani province that has seen intense civil conflict for years, police said. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack at the District Courts complex in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. "I confirm that that the civil judge Abdul Wahid has died in the bomb explosion," said Afaq Zahid, an area police chief. Rauf Khan, the city police chief, said the blast killed 13 people, including Wahid, five lawyers and relatives of some of the defendants."At this stage it is difficult to say whether it was a suicide attack or some one had planted the bomb there," he said. Bomb disposal experts are still investigating to determine nature of the attack.
Government forces have clashed with ethnic Baluch rebels in the vast desert province, scene of long-running unrest over political rights and royalties from rich natural gas fields.
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