At least four killed in southwest Pakistan bomb blast

At least four political workers were killed and 13 others injured in a bomb blast in Pakistan's restive southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said late Thursday.

The explosion occurred as the workers from an Islamist party were leaving a venue following a conference in the provincial capital of Quetta, which is home to several separatist and Islamist insurgencies.

"At least four political workers were killed and 13 others injured," Fida Hassan Shah, a senior police official, told AFP.

"It was an improvised explosive device and some 1.5 kg of explosive was used," he added.

Javed Akhtar, an official with Sandeman Provincial Hospital Quetta also confirmed the death toll to AFP.

Pakistan is fighting several low-level insurgencies in the impoverished province, waged by Islamist, separatist and sectarian groups.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack which the chief minister of the province, Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo, called an "act of terrorism".

Balochistan is Pakistan's largest and poorest province despite being rich in natural resources.

Resentment has been fuelled by billions of dollars of Chinese money flowing into the region through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) - a key part of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative - which locals say gave them little benefit as most new jobs went to outsiders.