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Bomb blast kills 3, wounds 9 in Pakistan's southwest

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police say a bomb has killed three people and wounded nine others in the southwestern town of Chaman near the Afghan border.

Officer Mohammad Iqbal says the bomb Saturday was planted in a motorcycle parked outside the office of a religious party.

He said the bomb detonated remotely when Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party's leader Maulana Mohammad Hanif was exiting the building, killing Hanif and two other men.

The blast took place amid heightened security in the town due to a presidential vote being held across the border in Afghanistan.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast.

Chaman is in the province of Baluchistan, where there is a yearslong low-level insurgency by Baluch separatists. Islamic militants also operate there.