QUETTA -- A suicide bomb blast that targeted the convoy of a top senator in southwest Pakistan killed at least 17 people and wounded more than 30 others, officials told AFP Friday (May 12).
The attack in Mastung District, Balochistan, struck a vehicle carrying the deputy chairman of Pakistan's upper house, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri.
The "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) took responsibility via its Amaq news agency.
"I am injured but safe," Haideri said on SAMAA TV. "The driver and others sitting next to me were badly injured."
The attacker arrived by motorcycle and blew himself up near Haideri's vehicle, two officials told AFP.
Haideri is a top official of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) (JUI-F), a powerful religiously oriented political party.
