Blast kills several Palestinian protesters in southwest Pakistan | New protests

At least 17 people were injured when explosives placed on a motorbike left Chaman village.

Quetta / Islamabad, Pakistan – A bomb blast killed at least seven people in a pro-Palestinian rally in the Chaman village on the Pakistani border in southwestern Palestine, police and hospital officials said.

The blast occurred when participants in a rally organized by a religious political party in the region were dispersed, police official Muhammad Iqbal told Al Jazeera.

“The reunion was held there, and as soon as it was over people were scattering when the explosion happened,” he said by phone.

Iqbal said the explosives were placed on a motorcycle parked around the location of the rally.

The death toll was seven dead and 17 injured, local hospital official Akhtar Muhammad told Al Jazeera. The condition of the three injured is serious and they have been taken to the provincial capital, Quetta, about 100 km southeast of Chaman.

A small town of about 150,000 people in the southwestern province of Balochistan, Pakistan, Chaman is one of the main border crossings between Pakistan and northwestern Afghanistan.

Abdul Qadir Loni, head of the regional party of the Nazriati faction (JUI-N) of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam religious party, was holding a rally, telling Al Jazeera by telephone that the explosion occurred as he was leaving the scene.

Loni said he heard a loud explosion and hurried into his vehicle and had threatened his life in recent months.

Local police official Maqsood Ahmed confirmed that the blast occurred at the end of the demonstration.

Gatherings were held in Palestine on Friday to help the Palestinians celebrate Palestinian Day in solidarity with the people of Gaza, after an 11-day conflict with Israel killed at least 243 Palestinians and 12 Israelis in Gaza.

Baluchistan is the largest but least populated province in Pakistan and has undergone several attacks in recent months.

The Pakistani military has been fighting the armed separatist ethnic separatist movement in the province for more than a decade, and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its allies have also been attacked in the province in the past.

Asad Hashim is a reporter for Al Jazeera in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim.