Bicycle bomb injures 11 in Pakistan

QUETTA: A bomb attached to a bicycle exploded outside a police station in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday, injuring 11 people, two seriously, police said.   

The bike was parked at a stand, metres away from the station in the centre of the frontier city, police spokesman Mohammad Iftikhar said.   

"Nine men were injured by a bomb fixed to a bicycle, two are in a critical condition and the rest were hit by shrapnel. Two women were also hurt by the explosion," Iftikhar said.   

All of the injured were taken to a local hospital, he added.   

No one claimed responsibility for the blast, the latest in a string of attacks in Baluchistan where both Taliban militants and autonomy-seeking tribal rebels are active.   

Meanwhile a banned tribal group said they planted a landmine which killed a former tribal rebel commander on Tuesday near Baluchistan's restive Dera Bugti district.   

The commander, named "Bangan", had surrendered to the government along with 28 comrades in July following the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti, a chieftain who was himself killed in an army raid on his cave hideout on August 26.   

On November 13 another bicycle bomb in a Quetta suburb killed a child and a man and injured 15 others.   

Several Afghans from an Islamic militant group were arrested early last month after a car bomb outside the provincial police chief's office in Quetta killed two policemen and a suspected militant inside the vehicle.