Date:11/03/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/03/11/stories/2006031103661400.htm

International

Baluchistan blast kills 30

QUETTA (Pakistan): An anti-tank mine exploded on Friday on a dirt road, killing at least 30 persons, mostly children, as they travelled by bus to a wedding in a remote part of south-western Pakistan where tribesmen are fighting security forces for more revenues from local gas fields. Eight others were wounded in the blast in Dera Bugti, about 300 km east of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, where the long-running conflict between ethnic Baluch militants and security forces has escalated in recent months. The bus was travelling to the bride's family home for the marriage ceremony at the nearby town of Rakhni when the explosion happened at 8:30 a.m local itme. The groom was among those hurt. Shahzad Khan, a town resident, said locals collected the body parts of the victims and had piled them under bedsheets. A local doctor said by phone that 21 children, five women and four men were killed, and most of the bodies were mutilated. He said he treated the injured in a roadside field, waiting for hours before government medics finally arrived in two helicopters to help. — AP