ISLAMABAD — Four people died and at least 20 were injured when a car bomb exploded near a market in Pakistan late on Sunday, a senior official has said.

The explosion hit the city of Qillah Abdullah in Balochistan province, close to the country's border with Afghanistan.

It damaged several shops and the outer perimeter of a building housing paramilitary forces, according to Deputy Commissioner Abdullah Riaz.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on ethnic Baloch separatists, who have carried out numerous attacks on security forces and civilians in Balochistan and other areas of the country.

Balochistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind condemned the bombing and said an investigation had been launched.

The province has long been the centre of a simmering insurgency waged by separatist groups seeking independence or greater autonomy.

Among them is the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a group banned in Pakistan and designated as a terrorist organisation by the US in 2019.

Pakistani authorities frequently accuse India of supporting both the BLA and the Pakistani Taliban — groups that have intensified their attacks in recent months.

In March, BLA militants killed 33 people, most of whom were soldiers, when they targeted a train in Balochistan.

Earlier this month, the BLA publicly appealed for Indian backing.

In a statement dated 11 May, the group urged New Delhi to provide it with “political, diplomatic and defense support".

The BLA rejected Islamabad’s claims that it acts as an Indian proxy, but pledged that its fighters would open a new front near the Afghan border — where the Pakistani Taliban has strongholds — if India provided support.

India has not formally responded to the overture, but the appeal comes at a moment of heightened tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors. — Euronews