Pakistan bomb injures 21

A bomb believed to have been rigged to a motorcycle exploded outside a bank in southwestern Pakistan and wounded 21 people today.

One was critically injured, a medical official said.

It was unclear who was behind the bombing outside a branch of the state-owned Allied Bank Ltd., which was open at the time, in Quetta, the capital of insurgency-wracked Baluchistan.

“So far I can only confirm that the bomb was planted outside the bank, but we don’t know who carried out this attack,” said Zahid Afaq, Quetta’s deputy police superintendent.

Twenty-one people were wounded in the blast, one critically, said Anwar Kamal, a physician at the Quetta Government Hospital where the victims were brought.

The bomb also smashed windows at the bank and destroyed three cars. Police investigating the cause of the blast believe it may have been a bomb tied to a motorcycle parked near the bank, Afaq said.

Baluchistan has witnessed scores of bomb and rocket attacks, most blamed on renegade tribesmen waging a violent campaign for increased government royalties for resources – such as natural gas – extracted from the province.