Bomb blast kills 20 in southwest Pakistan

A powerful bomb blast in southwest Pakistan killed at least 20 people and injured 40 others on Friday morning, local media reported.

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.

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.

Earlier, Cheema had said eight of the deceased were Hazaras, while one paramilitary troop was also among the victims of the explosion.

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.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the blast.

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.

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).