PAKISTAN, April 12: A powerful bomb has exploded at an open-air market in the western city of Quetta, killing at least 16 people and wounding 30 others, media reports said on Friday.

Police chief Abdur Razzaq Cheema said Friday's bombing took place near a residential area where members of the persecuted minority Hazara community live, according to Aljazeera Online.

He said authorities transported the dead and wounded to hospitals, where some of the victims were listed in critical condition. "Emergency has been declared at hospitals and it seems people from the Hazara community were the target," Alazeera quoted Cheema as saying.

Quetta is the capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province. Jam Kamal Khan, Balochistan's chief minister, condemned the bombing, saying "the enemy of humanity is behind this act of terrorism". 

 
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