Bicycle Bomb Leaves 11 Dead in Pakistan

At least 11 people were killed and nearly 30 wounded when a powerful bomb went off Friday afternoon at a busy market in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.

The bomb was planted on a bicycle, the local police chief said. It also damaged shops and vehicles, including a military truck.

The dead included at least one soldier, and officials suspect that the target was the military vehicle. The Baluchistan Liberation Army, a little-known nationalist group that claimed responsibility for the attack, said it had targeted the military vehicle, according to news reports. The injured were hospitalized.

Baluchistan has in recent years seen several low-level bombings, most of which have not caused any casualties and have been blamed on feuding tribesmen.

Meanwhile, Information Minister Sheik Rashid Ahmed said today Pakistani security forces have arrested the head of a militant group suspected in the October kidnapping of three U.N. election workers in Afghanistan.

Akbar Agha, chief of Jaish-e-Muslimeen, or Army of Muslims, was captured in the southern city of Karachi in the last few days, Ahmed said. He gave no details.

Armed men seized Annetta Flanigan of Northern Ireland, Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo on Oct. 28. They were freed unharmed in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Nov. 22.