Car bomb kills 10 in southwest Pakistan

A car bomb killed at least 10 people on Wednesday and wounded 22 others celebrating Eid in a Shiite Muslim area of the restive southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, police said. The bomb exploded in a parking lot next to a mosque where prayers marking the festival of Eid al-Fitr were taking place, senior police official Mohammad Hashim told AFP, adding that it may have been a suicide bomb. "The death toll has risen to 10," senior Quetta police official Hamid Shakil told AFP. He said two women and a seven-year-old boy were among the dead. "I cannot say yet if it's a suicide bomb but we are investigating," he said. Several cars parked nearby caught fire from the blast, and one house suffered blast damage, witnesses said. Live television footage showed swirls of thick black smoke rising from the area as people ran into the street, some pushing their cars to safety, while ambulances carried away the wounded. Hashim confirmed the toll, saying that there had been no immediate claim of responsibility and police could not speculate who might be behind the bombing. Earlier, police had said five people were killed in the blast. Pakistan's Baluchistan province, of which Quetta is the capital, has seen a recent surge in violence linked to a separatist insurgency, sectarian clashes and Taliban militants. Hundreds of people have died in violence in the province since the insurgency flared in late 2004. Despite having some of the lowest living standards in Pakistan, the region has the richest supply of natural resources. Most of Pakistan's 177 million-strong population are Sunni Muslims, but the country has a significant Shiite minority. Thousands of people have died in sectarian attacks in Pakistan since the late 1980s.