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Akbar Novruz

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Deputy Commissioner of Harnai Hazrat Wali told Xinhua that a roadside bomb blast hit a vehicle carrying laborers in Shahrag area of Harnai, leaving 11 dead and six others injured, Azernews reports.

Police, security forces and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and injured to a nearby hospital where a couple were in critical condition.

The deputy commissioner said that the improvised explosive device was planted on the roadside and it was detonated with a remote-controlled device.

The laborers were going to work at a coal mine when they came under the attack, said the official, adding that the police and security forces had cordoned off the area and launched a search operation.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed sorrow over the death of the miners and condemned the attack.

"Those ruthless elements responsible for harming the lives and property of innocent and unarmed citizens will have to pay a very heavy price," said the prime minister, affirming that efforts to eradicate the menace of terrorism from the country are actively underway.

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Ten labourers were killed on Friday when their vehicle was hit by a blast from an improvised explosive device (IED) in southwest Pakistan, an official said, Azernews reports.

Security forces have been battling a decades-long insurgency by separatist groups in impoverished Balochistan, with violence in the border regions surging over the past three years.

On Friday, a group of labourers were travelling to a market in Harnai district when it was hit by the blast, said local government official Saleem Tareen, adding that it was "an IED blast".

"Ten mine workers were killed in an attack in Harnai district," added Shahzad Zahri, another senior government official. Harnai is over 160 kilometres (100 miles) from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan. In a statement, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reaffirmed his "commitment to actively working towards eradicating the menace of terrorism from the country".

No group has claimed the attack. However, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the most active group in the region and often carries out deadly attacks against security forces or Pakistanis from other provinces.

The group has also targeted energy projects with foreign financing -- most notably from China -- accusing outsiders of exploiting the resource-rich region while excluding residents in the poorest part of Pakistan. Earlier this month, a vehicle carrying troops in a town in Balochistan came under fire from 70 to 80 assailants who had blocked the road In another attack in January, at least six people including Pakistani paramilitary troops were killed and scores injured in a bombing. Both the attacks were claimed by BLA.