At least two people were killed and more than two dozen wounded when a bomb exploded inside a mosque in south-western Pakistan, officials said, targeting worshippers gathered for Friday prayer.
Local police official Mohamed Yousaf said that the bomb went off in the main praying hall in Kuchlak area near the city of Quetta, the capital of the volatile province of Balochistan.
Yousaf added that the planted device exploded when dozens of worshippers began praying in the mosque.
Kuchlak, an impoverished, sleepy town located on a highway leading to neighbouring Afghanistan outside the city, is alleged to be the headquarters of Afghan Taliban’s Quetta Shura in Pakistan.
At least 25 injured people were being treated at clinics in Kuchlak and hospitals in Quetta, doctor Saeed Baloch said. Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper put the death toll at five.
The attack occurred nearly three months after a similar deadly bombing at a mosque in Quetta, also during Friday prayers.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Militants from both the Pakistani Taliban and the extremist Islamic State militia have targeted places of worship in Balochistan in the past.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and most volatile province, sharing borders with both Afghanistan and Iran and frequently targeted by Islamist militants, sectarian groups and sub-nationalist rebels. (dpa/NAN)