At least 32 killed in Pak bombings

At least 32 people, including eight security personnel, were killed and 60 injured on Thursday as militants targeted a convoy of Chinese engineers and a police training facility in Pakistan, officials said.

At least 24 people died when a roadside bomb exploded at 8.45 am in the southeast city of Hub in Balochistan province as a convoy of Chinese engineers passed through the city on their way to the southern port city of Karachi.

The van carrying the five Chinese was unharmed, but the four police vans in the convoy were damaged, district police officer Ghulam Ali Lashari said. Seven policemen were among the dead.

Ten of the more than 30 injured were in critical condition, said Sajid Lasi, medical officer at a hospital.

In a separate blast early on Thursday, at least eight people, including a policeman, were killed and 29 others injured in an explosion at the entrance to a police training facility in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

The attack was carried out by a suicide car bomber at 7.20 a.m. in the town of Hangu, 90 km southwest of NWFP capital Peshawar.

One child was among the five civilians killed in the bombing, police official Gul Zaman said. The body of the suicide bomber was recovered.

The attacker detonated the explosives when guards stopped him as he tried to drive his vehicle into the academy where the recruits had just finished their morning drill.

The injured were taken to a local hospital where authorities declared an emergency in the wake of the large number of casualties.

Violence has increased in Pakistan in revenge for the country's military troops storming Islamabad's Red Mosque, killing at least 72 Islamic militants, earlier this month.

On the calls of extremists, attacks have been carried out on military convoys and police facilities, leading to the death of over 100 security personnel so far.