Daesh attack targeting Pakistani senator’s convoy kills at least 25, injures dozens

A "huge" explosion in Pakistan's restive southwestern Balochistan province that apparently targeted a top official's convoy killed at least 25 people and wounded over 30 others, police said Friday.

The deadly attack was later claimed by the Daesh terror group. The group's Amaq news agency said a bomber wearing an explosive vest was responsible for the attack

The blast occurred the town of Mastung, 50 km (30 miles) from the provincial capital of Quetta. Television footage showed a vehicle mangled by the blast.

Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, the deputy chairman of the upper house of parliament, told minutes after the blast that he believed he was the target and he had sustained minor injuries.

"I am alive, Allah has saved my life, it was a sudden blast, broken pieces of the windscreen hit me, I am injured but safe. The driver and other people sitting next to me were badly injured," Haideri said on private TV channel SAMAA.

Survivors, several covered in blood, were picking up body parts that lay scattered in the road among vehicles twisted by the blast.

Paramilitary troops and a bomb disposal squad were deployed outside a nearby madrassa where the convoy had been headed for a graduation ceremony.

Pakistani, Afghan, Chinese and Bangladeshi flags -- the nationalities of students at the seminary -- were on display ahead of the ceremony.

Separatist militants in Baluchistan have waged a campaign against the central government for decades, demanding a greater share of the gas-rich province's resources.

Taliban and other terrorists also operate in the province, which shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran.