Grenade at store selling flags in Balochistan kills one

QUETTA: Suspected militants threw a grenade at a roadside store selling national flags in Balochistan early Friday, killing a man and wounding 14 people, police said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Quetta.

A senior police officer, Fida Hussain, said the wounded were taken to a nearby hospital. Wasim Baig, a spokesman for the provincial health department, said one of the wounded was in critical condition.

For nearly two decades, Balochistan has been the scene of a low-level militancy. The government says it has quelled the insurgency, but violence in the province has persisted.

Pakistan will celebrate Independence Day on August 14, the date in 1947 when the country became independent from British colonial rule when United India was divided.