1 killed, 18 injured in Pakistan blast

A five-year-old girl was killed and 18 people were injured when a bomb went off near a vehicle of paramilitary troops in Pakistan's southwest Quetta city on Saturday afternoon, local media reported. Geo TV said that the explosion happened in the commercial Sohrab area of Quetta, the capital city of southwestern Balochistan province, when people including women were shopping there. Police said the blast was triggered off by a remote controlled device and the explosive materials were fixed in a roadside rickshaw parked, and the apparent target was a vehicle of local paramilitary troops Frontier Corps (FC), which was passing. Though police said that no FC man had been injured in the blast, local media quoted eyewitnesses as saying that at least four FC members were among the injured people, who have been shifted to Civil Hospital of Quetta. Hospital sources said that most of the injured include women, kids and laborers who were working near the site of the blast, which also destroyed several shops and a restaurant. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. Police has cordoned off the area and kicked off a search operation.