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QUETTA: Two separate bomb attacks on paramilitary convoys in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province on Thursday killed four people including three soldiers, officials said.
The separatist Baloch Republican Army claimed responsibility for the first attack, in which a remotely-detonated roadside bomb hit a convoy in Naseerabad district, 430 kilometres southeast of Quetta.
“Two soldiers and a passer-by were killed and seven others were wounded. One vehicle was also badly damaged,” Abdul Jabbar Jatoi, a senior administrative official told AFP.
A second bomb, planted in a car and also detonated remotely, went off later in the outskirts of Quetta, killing another soldier and wounding three others, police said.
“One soldier died in hospital, three others are under medical treatment,” Hasan Buzdar, a police official in Quetta told AFP.
An official of the Paramilitary Frontier Corps in Quetta confirmed the incidents.
Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, has seen a surge in violence recently, with the province suffering from a separatist insurgency, sectarian violence and Taliban militants.
Hundreds of people have died since militants rose up in 2004 demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's natural oil, gas and mineral resources.
