Two killed in bicycle blast in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan, Nov 13 (Reuters) A bomb planted on a bicycle exploded in the Pakistani city of Quetta today killing two people, including an Afghan refugee girl, and wounding more than a dozen, police said.

Quetta is the capital of the gas-rich southwestern province of Baluchistan where nationalist tribal militants have been waging a low-level insurgency for autonomy and a greater share of the profits from natural resources for decades.

The province, on the border with Afghanistan, is also home to many Afghan refugees. The Afghan government says Taliban insurgents also operate from the province.

No one claimed responsibility for the bicycle bomb but Salman Sayed, deputy inspector general of provincial police, said it appeared to have connections ''across the border in Afghanistan''.

He did not elaborate.

''The condition of two of the wounded people is critical,'' he told Reuters.

Several bombs have gone off in Quetta and other parts of Baluchistan in recent months.

The Baluch rebels, who analysts say have no connections with the Taliban and other Islamist militants, have stepped up attacks on infrastructure, including gas pipelines, and security posts in recent months in their campaign for autonomy.

Pakistan accuses its old rival, India, of meddling in Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest but poorest province.

Reuters AB RS2348