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3 Die in Pakistan Suicide Blast Near Afghan Border, Police Say

AFP

   QUETTA, PAKISTAN - At least three paramilitary guards were killed
   Sunday when a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up in Quetta,
   southwestern Pakistan, police said.

   The bomber targeted Frontier Constabulary guards in the Mian Ghundi
   neighborhood of the city -- close to the Afghanistan border -- where
   Hazara Shiite merchants were trading vegetables.

   Azhar Akram, a deputy inspector general of police, told AFP that 20
   people were injured in the blast, including civilians.

   A spokesperson for the police's Counter-Terrorism Department confirmed
   the toll.

   Shiite Muslims have been frequently targeted in restive Balochistan by
   radical Sunni Islamist groups, who consider them a heretical sect.

   Frontier guards have also been targeted by Baloch insurgents, who have
   been waging a simmering insurgency for greater autonomy.

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