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Pakistan Wedding Party Explosion Kills 30

Officials in Pakistan say a crowded bus carrying a wedding party hit an anti-tank mine in a volatile region of southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 30 people and wounding eight. Dr. Sher Zaman, who assisted with the injured, says the dead include 21 children and five women. Officials say rescuers took the injured to hospitals as swiftly as possible in the remote, mine-laden area.

Officials say the bus had been traveling to a wedding in the town of Rakhni. The explosion in Dera Bugti, about 180 miles east of Quetta, did not appear to be deliberate.

District chief Abdul Samad Lasi blamed a local tribal militant chief, Nawab Akbar Bugti, for laying mines in the area, where ethnic Baluch tribesmen often attack security forces, natural gas plants and pipelines to pressure the government to increase royalties for gas extracted from Pakistan`s poorest province.