<p>Four Pakistani paramilitary guards were killed Sunday when a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up in the southwestern city of Quetta, police said.</p>.<p>The bomber targeted Frontier Constabulary guards in the Mian Ghundi neighbourhood of the city -- around 140 kilometers (87 miles) from the frontier with Afghanistan -- where Hazara Shiite merchants were trading vegetables.</p>.<p>Three died immediately in the blast, with another officer dying later of his wounds, said Azhar Akram, a deputy inspector general of police.</p>.<p>Akram told AFP that 17 guards and two civilians were wounded in the blast. Three are in a critical condition, he said.</p>.<p>A spokesman for the police's Counter-Terrorism Department confirmed the attack.</p>.<p>Quetta is home to approximately 500,000 Hazaras, who mostly live in an ethnic enclave on the edge of the city.</p>.<p>The community has long been targeted by the Islamic State and other militant Sunni groups, who see them as a heretical sect.</p>.<p>A series of bombings carried out by a Pakistani sectarian militant group in 2013 killed over 200 Hazaras in the city.</p>.<p>Frontier guards have also been targeted by Baloch insurgents, who have been waging a simmering insurgency for greater autonomy.</p>
<p>Four Pakistani paramilitary guards were killed Sunday when a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up in the southwestern city of Quetta, police said.</p>.<p>The bomber targeted Frontier Constabulary guards in the Mian Ghundi neighbourhood of the city -- around 140 kilometers (87 miles) from the frontier with Afghanistan -- where Hazara Shiite merchants were trading vegetables.</p>.<p>Three died immediately in the blast, with another officer dying later of his wounds, said Azhar Akram, a deputy inspector general of police.</p>.<p>Akram told AFP that 17 guards and two civilians were wounded in the blast. Three are in a critical condition, he said.</p>.<p>A spokesman for the police's Counter-Terrorism Department confirmed the attack.</p>.<p>Quetta is home to approximately 500,000 Hazaras, who mostly live in an ethnic enclave on the edge of the city.</p>.<p>The community has long been targeted by the Islamic State and other militant Sunni groups, who see them as a heretical sect.</p>.<p>A series of bombings carried out by a Pakistani sectarian militant group in 2013 killed over 200 Hazaras in the city.</p>.<p>Frontier guards have also been targeted by Baloch insurgents, who have been waging a simmering insurgency for greater autonomy.</p>