Mosque blast kills 2 in southwest Pakistan

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - At least two people were killed and over a dozen others injured in an explosion targeting a mosque during Friday prayers in southwest Pakistan, officials and local media reported.

The mosque located in Pashtunabad area of Quetta -- the capital of southwestern Balochistan province -- was attacked in the middle of the Friday prayers, local broadcaster Geo TV reported.

Dr. Saleem Abro, head of Civil Hospital Quetta, told reporters that two bodies, and 15 injured persons -- two of them in critical state -- were brought to the hospital.

There was no immediate official word about the nature of the blast.

The large Balochistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has been marred by violence for over six decades, with separatists claiming that it was forcibly incorporated into Pakistan at the end of British rule in 1947.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a conglomerate of different militant outfits, has also been active in the region, and has claimed responsibility for several suicide attacks in Quetta and elsewhere in recent years.

The province, a gateway to $64 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), has also been facing a deadly wave of sectarian violence for the last decade.

More than 2,000 people, mostly Shias, have been killed in targeted attacks and suicide bombings in Quetta and other parts of the province in the last 10 years, according to local media reports.