Police officials said the IED was detonated with a remote-controlled device in a shop in a local market in the Awaran district.

Pakistani police confirmed that at least one person was killed and eight others were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded on Saturday in the Balochistan province.

Police officials said the IED was detonated with a remote-controlled device in a shop in a local market in the Awaran district, killing a shopkeeper and injuring several others, including a woman and a child.

Following the explosion, security forces and rescue teams rushed to the site and transferred the injured to a nearby hospital, as police cordoned off the area and began search operations in pursuit of the perpetrators.

Balochistan Chief Minister, Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, condemned the attack and vowed that the perpetrators will be arrested and prosecuted.

Xinhua news agency said a banned armed group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Earlier this month, three police officers were killed in a terrorist attack in the Nowshera district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, northwest Pakistan.

In late November, a suicide bombing in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta targeted a police patrol, killing three people and wounding 28.

The explosion, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban militant group, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in a text message to Reuters, came after the group ended a ceasefire with the Pakistani government that week.