Journalist among three killed in Pakistan blast

Karachi, May 3: Three people, including a senior journalist, were killed and eight others injured in a bomb blast that targeted his vehicle in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Friday, police said.
A remote-controlled roadside bomb was planted near Chomrok Chowk on the outskirts of Khuzdar town and when Maulana Siddique Mengal, a senior journalist and also the president of the Khuzdar Press Club, reached the spot, the bomb was set off, a senior police official said. “Maulana Mengal and two other passersby were killed in the blast, while eight others were injured and taken to the hospital,” he said.
Mengal was also a provincial officer-bearer of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) party. He also used to write for a local newspaper, “Watan”. The attack on the senior journalist happened on a day when World Press Freedom Day was observed.
Accident kills 20
At least 20 people were killed and 21 others injured when a passenger bus skidded off a mountainous terrain and plunged into a ravine in northwest Pakistan’s Gilgit Baltistan region on Friday, authorities said.
The incident occurred around 5:30 am on the Karakoram Highway in Diamer district when the bus was on its way from Rawalpindi to Hunza, a police official said.
The driver lost control of the vehicle which then overturned and landed near the banks of the Indus River, the official said. (PTI)