UPDATE – Bomb blast kills 20 in southwest Pakistan

UPDATES WITH DEATH TOLL</p> <p>By Aamir Latif</p> <p>KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – A powerful bomb blast in southwest Pakistan killed at least 20 people and injured 40 others on Friday morning, local media reported.</p> <p>The bomb was placed in a gunny bag inside a grocery shop in the northern Hazargunji outskirt of Quetta city — capital of southwestern Balochistan province — local police chief Abdul Razzak Cheema told reporters.</p> <p>However, Balochistan Home Minister Ziaullah Langove told a news conference, aired by local broadcasters, that the blast was an act of a suicide bomber and that 20 people were killed and 48 others injured in the attack.</p> <p>Earlier, Cheema had said eight of the deceased were Hazaras, while one paramilitary troop was also among the victims of the explosion.</p> <p>Hazaras, which originally hail from northern Afghanistan, have long been target of suicide bombings, and bomb blasts claimed by hardline sectarian militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in past decades.</p> <p>No group has so far claimed responsibility for the blast.</p> <p>Quetta has long been beset with sectarian violence that has claimed more than 2,000 lives over the past one decade, according to local media.</p> <p>Balochistan, which covers 42 percent of the country's land and borders neighboring Afghanistan and Iran, is also a key route of multi-million-dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).