Bomb blasts near government official's home in Pakistan

A bomb exploded Friday near the home of a government official supervising operations against tribal militants in southwestern Pakistan, officials said, adding that the blast damaged a wall and his kitchen but caused no injuries. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn attack apparently targeting Abdul Samad Lasi's house in Hab, a town 700 kilometers (435 miles) southeast of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.

Photo: Bomb blasts near government official's home in Pakistan

The region's police chief, Pervez Zahoor, said authorities were investigating. Lasi blamed a renegade tribal elder for the attack. "The men of Nawab Akbar Bugti are responsible for it," he said. "The bomb destroyed a wall and the kitchen of my house, but none of my family members was hurt," he added.

Authorities have long accused Bugti, a tribal elder, of orchestrating attacks against gas fields, security forces and officials. Bugti and his supporters have been demanding increased royalties for resources extracted from their lands. They are also opposed to the setting up of new military garrisons in their areas.

Officials have said the new garrisons were designed to protect important installations and the staff working there. The latest unrest in sparsely populated Baluchistan's tribal areas has raised fears of a repeat of an uprising that rocked the province in the 1970s, when thousands died in a large-scale military operation against rebellious tribesmen, reports the AP.

I.L.