At least 11 people were killed and six others injured when a roadside bomb targeted a vehicle carrying coal miners in southwestern Pakistan, local officials reported on Friday.

The explosion occurred in the Harnai district of Balochistan province, a region where Pakistan faces an ongoing separatist insurgency. According to a paramilitary official, an improvised explosive device (IED) was planted along the roadside and detonated as the truck carrying the miners passed. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested the bomb may have been remotely triggered.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Hazrat Wali Agha, the region’s deputy commissioner, confirmed that 17 miners were in the truck at the time of the explosion. A doctor at a local hospital stated that two of the wounded were in critical condition.

Balochistan, rich in mineral resources and bordering Iran and Afghanistan, has long been plagued by violence from separatist ethnic Baloch groups and Islamist militants.

Source: Reuters
—Agencies