Four killed in Pakistan bomb blasts

Two bomb blasts in Pakistan’s restive south-west Baluchistan province killed four people today, officials said, blaming tribesmen demanding more royalties for resourcesextracted from their region.

One of the bombs, hidden in a plastic shopping bag, detonated outside a security post in Dhadar, a small town about 62 miles south-east of Quetta, Baluchistan’s capital, said Mahmood Marri, a senior government administrator in the area. Two policemen were killed in the blast, he said.

Eight other policemen – deployed to guard gas exploration companies in the area – were wounded when the attackers opened fire from nearby hills, he said.

The explosion in Dhadar came hours after another bomb ripped through a state-run dairy farm in Kohlu, another town in Baluchistan, leaving two farm workers dead and 10 others injured.

Ethnic Baluch tribesmen are suspected in a spate of attacks on government installations and security forces in recent months in a campaign to press demands for increased royalties for resources extracted in their territories.