Three people, including two children, were killed and 17 others, including two police officers, were wounded in a bomb blast in Pishin, a district in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, a police official told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal.
"An improvised explosive device (IED) was fitted onto a motorcycle in Pishin city on the morning of August 24 where two children were killed and 12 people sustained injuries," Muhibullah Kakar, the head of district police station told Radio Mashaal immediately after the incident.
Pishin is locate some 55 kilometers north of Quetta, the capital city of restive Balochistan Province.
The medical superintendent of the District Headquarter Hospital in Pishin, Wakeel Sherani, told Radio Mashaal that his hospital received two dead bodies and 18 wounded people, including three women.
"Seventeen of those wounded were referred to Quetta Civil Hospital for further treatment," Sherani added. Two of the wounded people are in critical condition, medical officials said.
They added later that one of the three women succumbed to her injuries.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. Police have begun an investigation into the incident but have not arrested any suspects so far.
Militant attacks have recently increased in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Balochistan provinces.
Balochistan is a mineral-rich province that borders both Afghanistan and Iran and is regularly targeted by Islamist militants, sectarian groups, and Baluch separatists fighting for independence.
The Baluch Liberation Army, a Baluch militant group, and its "special force" Majid Brigade have recently intensified attacks on Pakistani military bases and Chinese nationals in Balochistan.
Pakistan's National Counterterrorism Authority (NACTA) on July 31 added Hafiz Gul Bahadur and the Majid Brigade to its list of terrorist organizations, raising the number of Pakistani groups on the list to 81.
The Hafiz Gul Bahadur militant group is active in the tribal areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.