21 killed in Pakistan suicide attack, Senate deputy chairman injured

The deputy chairman of Pakistan's upper house of parliament was injured and 21 people were killed when a suicide bomber targeted a convoy in the restive Balochistan province on Friday, according to media reports.

Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, deputy chairman of the Senate and a senior leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl party, was among some 50 people injured in the attack in Mastung region, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.

At least 21 people were killed in the attack, The News daily quoted its sources as saying. JUI-F leader Maulana Abdul Malik said Haideri's vehicle was targeted by the blast.

"I am alive...broken pieces of the windscreen hit me.I am injured but safe," Haideri told a TV



news channel soon after the attack.

The powerful explosion damaged several vehicles in the convoy, news channels reported. The incident occurred near a mosque at a location about 70 km from Quetta, the provincial capital.

Haideri, who was returning from an event at a seminary near the site of the attack, was taken to a nearby hospital. Media reports described his condition as stable.

Most of the dead and injured were workers of the JUI-F.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Paramilitary forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan condemned the attack.