Bombing in southwest Pakistan kills two

Two people have been killed and five others injured in a bomb attack carried out near a mosque in a suburb of the city of Quetta, southwestern Pakistan.

Fayyaz Sunmbol, the deputy inspector general of police in Quetta, said that the attack was carried out on Thursday morning in the village of Kuchlak, about 22 kilometers (13 miles) from the capital of Balochistan Province.

Sunmbol added that authorities have launched an investigation into the bombing. All the injured have been taken to a nearby hospital.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, but pro-Taliban militants have been blamed for similar attacks in the past.

Reports say acts of violence have claimed the lives of more than 6,000 people in Pakistan over the past six years.

Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Pakistan entered an alliance with the United States in the so-called war on terror.

Thousands more have been displaced by the wave of violence and militancy sweeping across the country.