Bomb explosion in Islamic school in Pakistan kills one, injures four

Karachi, Pakistan - A bomb strapped to a man's body exploded inside an Islamic school in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing him and injuring four other people, an official said.

The explosion occurred in the seminary in Samzai, a village about 70 km (45 miles) northwest of Quetta, capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, local government administrator Asmatullah Kakar said.

Kakar said it was not clear whether it was a suicide attack targeting the Sunni Muslim school.

"We do not know yet whether they wanted to carry out explosions in the madrassa (Islamic school) or an act of terrorism elsewhere," he said.

The man who died came to the school with two other men, all posing as guests in the village, and they were speaking with the school's administrator when the bomb went off, Kakar said, quoting the administrator, Maulvi Jamaluddin.

The two other visitors and two students at the school were injured.

The two injured men have been arrested and police seized five homemade bombs from them, Kakar said.

The men's names were not given; Kakar said one is an Afghan. In Baluchistan, a large but impoverished province, local tribesmen have been blamed for small-scale bombings targeting railroads, security forces and other government installations in recent years.

Deadly sectarian violence has also been reported from Baluchistan recently. Two Shiite Muslims have been shot dead in Quetta over the past two days. No one has claimed responsibility for the drive-by shootings.