Karachi: At least two policemen were killed in a roadside blast in the troubled Balochistan province while 13 people were injured in two separate suicide bombings during Eid prayers on Tuesday targeting minority Shias in Pakistan's relatively peaceful southern Sindh province.

Two police officials were killed and 10 other injured in a blast near a police training centre on Quetta's Sariab road when militants targeted a police patrol vehicle in the area, police said.

Also, four suicide attackers infiltrated Shikarpur district's Khanpur tehsil, 470 kilometres north of Karachi, police said.

Two of the attackers targeted an Eid prayer ground where one assailant blew himself up, injuring 10 people, two of whom were policemen. The other attacker managed to flee, they said.

Two other suicide bombers targeted a Shia mosque but they were stopped at the entrance by policemen, which led to one of them blowing himself up while the other was arrested. Three policemen were injured in the attack, one of whom was critical. Last year, at least 61 people were killed in a suicide attack on a mosque in the district.

"Alert" policemen at the venues prevented huge casualties, police officer Beherdin Kehrio told reporters. "If the policemen had not prevented these suicide bombers from entering the prayer venues there would have been largescale casualties because of the large gathering because of Eid prayers," he said.

He said the attackers at the Shia mosque were stopped by policemen as they looked suspicious and when confronted one of them detonated himself. "The other attacker was brought down and arrested," he added.

Those injured in the blast have been admitted to hospitals in Shikarpur for treatment. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan has been frequently hit by sectarian violence in recent years, most of them perpetrated by hardline Sunni Muslim groups against minority Shia Muslims. However, Sindh is considered a relatively peaceful of Pakistan's four provinces and is highly influenced by Sufi doctrines and principles.</s>Roadside blast kills two cops in Quetta

QUETTA: A roadside bomb killed two policemen and injured eight other people on Tuesday, police and rescue officials said.

“A bomb planted on Sariab Road went off just as a police van passed by,” Geo News quoted Superintendent Police Abdullah Afridi as saying. It was not immediately clear whether all the injured were policemen, Afridi said.

The injured were moved to Civil Hospital Quetta, where at least one of them is said to be in critical condition.

Rescue officials said two policemen were killed and five others injured in the attack that apparently targeted their van. Two passers by are said to have sustained injuries in the attack. The police suspect that the attack was carried out through a remote-controlled device.

Earlier in the day, at least three policemen were injured when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives while trying to enter Khanpur Imambargah in Shikarpur district of SIindh province as worshipers were offering Eid prayers.

Worshippers overpowered the second would-be suicide bomber as the police were reeling from their injuries inflicted in the first blast.</s>Mr. Kirby was responding to a question on growing clarion calls from both inside and outside Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province on its independence and violation of human rights by the Pakistani security forces there.

The U.S. respects the unity and territorial integrity of Pakistan and does not support independence for Balochistan, a state department official has said.

“The government policy is that we support the territorial integrity of Pakistan and we do not support independence for Balochistan,” State Department Spokesman John Kirby told reporters at his daily news conference on Monday.

Mr. Kirby was responding to a question on growing clarion calls from both inside and outside Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province on its independence and violation of human rights by the Pakistani security forces there.

“Where does the U.S. stand on Balochistan? Because Indian Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] has raised this subject,” Mr. Kirby was asked.

“The U.S. Government respects the unity and territorial integrity of Pakistan and we do not support independence for Balochistan,” he reiterated.

In his address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the occasion of 70th Independence Day, Modi talked about the situation in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Gilgit and Balochistan and said people from there have thanked him for raising their issues.
A roadside blast in the Balochistan Province kills two policemen and injures eight people.