ISLAMABAD: At least one policeman was killed and 17 others, including police, were wounded in a blast in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Monday. 
Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan in terms of land area, has long been marred by a separatist insurgency and sectarian divides that have claimed hundreds of lives. 
The injured people in Monday’s blast included 13 policemen and four civilians, who were taken to Civil Hospital, according to Balochistan government spokesman Liaquat Shahwani. Health authorities later moved the critically wounded to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Quetta. 
“The blast targeted a police truck near Balochistan University,” Balochistan Home Minister Mir Ziaullah Langove told reporters in Quetta. “The deceased and injured policemen were deployed on the security of Baloch Student Organization.” 
A spokesperson for the Balochistan Counter-Terrorism Department said a remote-controlled bomb was used, and the blast was carried out using an improvised explosive device (IED) fitted inside a motorbike. 
“The explosives weighing 4kg exploded when a police truck passed by,” the CTD spokesperson said, adding that motorbike was parked near the exit gate of Balochistan University on Saryab Road. 
Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has asked the provincial police chief to submit a report on the blast. 
“[We] will not let terrorists destroy Balochistan’s peace,” he said in a statement, promising to provide all possible assistance and resources to the Balochistan government. 
No group has yet claimed responsibility, but Baloch separatist groups have claimed similar attacks in the past. 
The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army and Baloch Liberation Front have been engaged in a low-level insurgency for nearly two decades, calling for independence for the gas- and mineral-rich province. 
Daesh militants also have a footprint in the region and have been involved in attacks on ethnic Hazara Shiites.