Landmine blast kills 2, injures 1 in SW Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A landmine struck the convoy of a politician in Pakistan’s southwest, killing two of his private bodyguards and critically wounding a third, a local official said Saturday.

Baluchistan Assembly member Sardar Khan Rind was going to his native town of Suni when his bodyguards’ vehicle was struck by a landmine in the Sunni Shoran area of Kacchi Bolan district, said deputy commissioner Sami Ullah. They died at the scene of the blast, which is around 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the provincial capital Quetta.

Rind escaped unhurt. No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

The province has long struggled with a low-level insurgency by the Baluchistan Liberation Army and other small separatist groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad.

Authorities claim to have quelled the insurgency but violence has persisted. The province has also seen attacks by militants from both the Pakistani Taliban and the Islamic State group.