QUETTA: Armed militants torched a tanker carrying fuel for US and Nato troops in Afghanistan and killed its driver in Balochistan’s troubled Khuzdar district on Wednesday.

Muhammad Riaz, a police official, said armed militants on motorcycles opened fire at the tanker in Baghbana area of Khuzdar, killing one and injuring another two persons. “The driver was killed on the spot,” he said.

After the firing, the militants then came close and set the tanker on fire before speeding away on their motorcycles, he said.

Levies and police personnel reached the spot as the investigation went underway.

There was so far no claim of responsibility for the attack.

In a separate unrelated incident, a woman and her three children were wounded in a land mine explosion in restive resource-rich Dera Bugti district Wednesday morning.

Spokesman for the Frontier Corps (FC) paramilitary force, Khan Wasay, said the woman and her children were walking on the road when they hit a land mine in Pir Koh area of Dera Bugti.

“The hapless woman and her children are critically injured,” Wasay said.

The injured were rushed to Sui for medical treatment. FC personnel reached the spot and started investigation into the incident. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, FC personnel also defused an eight-kilogram explosive device at Misri Goth area of Sui.

Wasay said the FC personnel also recovered detonators and other weapons from the spot. He said the FC had foiled a major terror bid by detecting and defusing the explosive materials.

Dera Bugti and Khuzdar are considered to be the most sensitive districts in insurgency-hit Balochistan. Militants have been targeting vital national installations and security forces for several years in the two restive districts.