At least 17 injured as roadside bomb targets judge's police escort in Quetta

Blast comes on the heels of a deadly suicide attack that killed 73 people

QUETTA: A roadside bomb hit a security vehicle and wounded 17 people on Thursday in Quetta, days after a suicide bombing at a hospital killed at least 74 people, most of them lawyers.

Home Minister Safaraz Bugti said the homemade bomb targeted police personnel escorting a judge, who was not hurt in the attack, in the city. "

It was Federal Shariat Court Judge Zahoor Shawani's car that was passing, but I believe it was the police who were the target," he said.



"It was a remote-controlled device with 3-4 kg of explosives ... I think these kinds of cowardly acts will not reduce our morale."

Medical Superintendent Abdul Rehman Miankhel told Reuters the wounded, including four members of the security forces, were being treated at the Civil Hospital, the same facility hit by Monday's suicide attack.



Monday's attack hit a large group of lawyers gathered at the hospital to mourn the head of the Balochistan bar association who was shot dead earlier that day.



The hospital suicide bombing was Pakistan's deadliest attack this year. It was claimed by both a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, and also by the Islamic State militant group, which has been seeking to recruit followers in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Targeted killings have become increasingly common in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan that has seen rising violence linked to a separatist insurgency as well as sectarian tensions and rising crime.