Bike bomb injures 18 in southwest Pakistan

QUETTA: A bomb on a bicycle injured 18 people in Pakistan's restive southwestern province of Baluchistan on Sunday, police said.

A homemade bomb fixed to a bicycle went off outside a hotel at a busy street in the provincial capital of Quetta, local police official Abid Nawab said.

Most of the victims were buying breakfast when the blast occurred, he said.

Two of the injured were in a serious condition at a Quetta hospital, doctor Ghulam Haider said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast but the impoverished province has been tense since the killing of tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti last month.

Bugti, who had led tribal rebels in a violent campaign for autonomy and a greater share of revenue from Baluchistan's natural resources, died in a cave hideout in an army operation on August 26.

The death of the veteran Baluch nationalist sparked violence that left 10 people dead in bomb blasts and clashes with police.

Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has seen nearly two years of attacks on pipelines, railway tracks and government installations.

Hundreds of people have died since the unrest erupted in late 2004.