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A bomb exploded Friday in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 16 people and injuring 30 others in an attack that allegedly targeted Shia Muslim minorities.
"It seems that people from [Shiite] The Hazara community was the target, "said police chief Abdur Razzaq Cheema.
The explosive device was hidden between sacks of potatoes in Hazar Ganji, a fruit and vegetable market on the outskirts of the city.
The Hazara represent about 500,000 people out of 2.3 million inhabitants of Quetta. They are so often referred that they enjoy police protection in the market.
"The same thing happened today, there were police officers … who were watching them when the explosion happened," said Mohsin Butt, chief of the provincial police of the United States. Baluchistan.
Among the dead, at least eight Shiites, as well as a paramilitary soldier and seven other people. Among the wounded were four soldiers guarding the market.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Hazaras was frequently targeted by Taliban and members of the Islamic State armed group and other Sunni activist groups in Pakistan and Somalia. in Afghanistan, on the border with Baluchistan.
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