Bomb injures 7 people in Pakistan

A bomb rigged to a bicycle exploded Wednesday in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta, wounding seven people, police said.

The explosion near a police station in a market street also shattered windows in adjacent shops and buildings, said Khizar Hayat, a police official in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province. No police were injured, he said.

The wounded included shop owners, passers-by and shoppers, Hayat said.

A 50-year-old man passing near the blast was seriously hurt and taken to Quetta's main state-run hospital, Hayat said.

Mohammed Ashraf, 19, was also caught in the explosion, his legs cut by shrapnel.

"Everyone started running all over the place," Ashraf said from his hospital bed. "I fell to the ground and could not get up."

No one claimed responsibility for the blast. Authorities blame rebel Baluch tribesmen for bombings and rocket attacks targeting railroads, security forces, gas fields and gas pipelines in the province.

Last month, a car bomb near Quetta's police headquarters killed two policemen and a suspected bomber. Four other people were wounded.

Rebel tribesmen are suspected to have launched a violent campaign to press demands for the central government to give greater provincial autonomy to Baluchistan and increase royalties for resources extracted in their territories.