Blast kills six in northwest Pakistan

At least six people were killed and nine others wounded after a bomb blast ripped through a passenger van in Pakistan's northwestern district of Khyber on Wednesday. The van was carrying 15 men from Khurrakai village to Jamrud, the main town in Khyber district, when it was hit while passing through a ravine. Khyber is one of seven districts in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt, where Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked fighters have carved out strongholds used to plot attacks on Pakistani, Afghan and Western targets. Meanwhile on Tuesday, at least 12 people were killed as a result of sectarian violence in northwestern Pakistan. More than 50 others were injured. The violence began when a group of unidentified people hurled a hand grenade at a group of protesters near the Gari Bagh area of Gilgit, a city located in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. The incident resulted in the deaths of at least five people, while dozens of others were injured. In Chilas, a small town also located in Gilgit-Baltistan, a group of gunmen attacked a passenger bus, ordering the passengers out of the vehicle before executing six of them. In a separate incident, assailants killed a man while he was in the lawn of his house in Majini Muhalla.