Bomb blast kills 14 in southwestern Pakistan

A bomb hidden among bags of potatoes at a Pakistani market killed at least 14 people, half of them ethnic Hazaras, officials said on Friday.
A powerful bomb blast in southwest Pakistan killed at least 14 people and injured two dozens on Friday morning, police said.

The explosion occurred in the northern Hazargunji outskirt of Quetta city, capital of southwestern Balochistan province, Abdul Razzak Cheema, local police chief, told reporters.

It is believed to have targeted Hazara community.

Cheema said eight of the deceased were Hazaras, while one paramilitary troop was also among the victims of the explosion.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the blast.

Officials fear the rise in death toll since several were injured.

Hazaras, which originally hail from northern Afghanistan, have long been target of suicide bombings, and bomb blasts claimed by hardline sectarian militant group Lashkar e Jhangvi in past decades.

Quetta has long been beset with sectarian violence that has claimed more than 2,000 lives over the past one decade, according to local media.

Balochistan, which covers 42 percent of the country's land and borders neighboring Afghanistan and Iran, is also a key route of multi-million-dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).