Bomb kills two girls in southwest Pak: police

Two Pakistani girls were killed on Friday when a bomb exploded in their home in a remote village in restive southwestern Baluchistan province, police said.

Two Pakistani girls were killed on Friday when a bomb exploded in their home in a remote village in restive southwestern Baluchistan province, police said.

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Unknown attackers, apparently targeting the girls' male relatives, planted the bomb in the mud-brick home in the village of Teenda in Naseerabad district, local police official Muhammad Ali Khoso told AFP.

"Two girls, aged six and eight years, were killed in the bomb blast," Khoso said, adding that one wall of the house was destroyed.

The apparent targets of the attacks escaped injury as they had already left for work on nearby farms, he said.

"The incident is being investigated, but the attacks appear to be linked to the ongoing unrest," the official said.

Hundreds of people have died in violence in gas-rich Baluchistan since an insurgency flared in late 2004, with rebels demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's vast natural resources.

Baluchistan, which borders both Afghanistan and Iran, has also been hit by attacks blamed on Taliban militants and sectarian extremists.