Car bomb kills 3 in Pakistani city of Quetta

Quetta (Pakistan), Nov 2: A car bomb exploded in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta today, killing a man inside the car and two policemen, police and witnesses said.

The car was parked near the office of the police chief for Baluchistan province.

''A man sitting in the car and two traffic policemen were killed and seven people were injured,'' Qazi Wahid, a senior superintendent of police in Quetta, told Reuters at the site of the blast.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but authorities in the past have blamed similar attacks on rebels fighting for more autonomy and more of the profits from Baluchistan's gas and mineral resources.

Nationalist Baluch rebels have waged a low-key insurgency for decades but in the past year have stepped up attacks on infrastructure, including gas pipelines, and security posts.

Police in Quetta have also mounted a crackdown against suspected Taliban in recent months amid complaints from Afghanistan, the United States and NATO powers that militants were attacking across the frontier from the safety of Pakistan's borderlands.

Last Saturday, one man was killed and a dozen wounded in a bicycle bomb blast in the city.

Reuters