3 civilians killed in a bomb explosion in Pakistan and 2 security personnel die in a rocket attack

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A roadside bomb exploded in Pakistan’s volatile Baluchistan province on Monday, killing a woman and two children, officials said.

Four people were walking through an area in Baluchistan’s Turbat district when the bomb planted by “terrorists” went off, said local police chief Dad Bakhsh said.

No one claimed responsibility but Baluch separatists often target security forces in the southwestern province, which has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad.

Although the government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in the province has persisted.

Meanwhile, two security personnel were killed in an overnight rocket attack on their post in Jamrud, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, police officer Salim Khan said.

No one claimed responsibility but such previous attacks have been blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, who are a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.