Three killed by landmines in Pakistan's Baluchistan

QUETTA, Pakistan, May 7 (Reuters) Three people were killed and seven wounded in three landmine blasts in Pakistan's restive southwestern Baluchistan province today, officials said.

Two people were killed and three wounded when a passengervan hit a landmine in the town of Dera Bugti, a stronghold of renegade tribal elder Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. Three policemen were injured in a similar explosion in the same town, Abdul Samad Lasi, a senior government official in Dera Bugti said.

In another explosion, a nomad was killed and another wounded in the town of Sibi, around 160 km east of the provincial capital Quetta.

No one claimed responsibility but officials have blamed Baluch militants fighting for greater autonomy and more benefits from the exploration of oil and gas for such attacks in the past.

Baluch nationalists accuse the central government of exploiting Baluchistan's natural resources without passing on the benefits to its local population.

REUTERS OM VC1745