(MENAFN- Arab News) PESHAWAR/QUETTA: Police in Pakistan say a bomb has exploded at a bus station in the country's northwest killing at least six people.

Senior police officer Ishtiaq Marwat says Saturday's attack in the northwestern town of Kohat also wounded 17 people.

He said the bomb struck a moving bus when hundreds of passengers were gathered there to leave for different cities to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha. Footage from Pakistani news channels showed a damaged bus.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack though Kohat has been the scene of sectarian attacks in recent years most blamed on Pakistani Sunni Muslim militants.

Officials said the bomb targeted a pick-up van used to transport passengers locally in Kohat city and surrounding villages.

'The blast occurred at a small bus stop in Kohat city. At least two vehicles were damaged in the explosion' Salim Khan Marwat district police chief in Kohat told AFP.

'The explosion has left six people dead and 17 injured' he added.

Fazal Khaliq head of the emergency department at Kohat's main government hospital also confirmed the toll.

Kohat is located about 50 km southwest of Peshawar the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

In February 12 people including two women and a child were killed in a bombing at the same bus stop.

It is the second attack on a passenger vehicle to hit northwest Pakistan in a week.

On Thursday a bomb blast on a coach in the city of Peshawar killed at least seven people and wounded another six.

Pakistan's northwest has been targeted for more than a decade by Al-Qaeda and Taleban-led militants based in the semi-autonomous tribal regions bordering Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Pakistan's military launched a major operation in June to destroy the bases of the Taleban and other militants in the North Waziristan tribal area.

It says has killed more than a thousand militants and lost 86 soldiers since the start of the current operation.

In another incident a huge roadside bomb explosion in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province wounded at least seven people on Saturday security officials said.

Planted in a car parked by the side of the road the bomb went off in a suburb of the city of Quetta as police officer's vehicle was passing. Officials said it was unclear whether he was intended the target.

'The bomb was planted in a car in a relatively deserted location on Spini Road. It exploded just after a police deputy superintendent passed' Quetta police chief Abdul Razzak Cheema told AFP.

'Seven people who got injured in the blast were taken to hospital' Cheema added.

Bomb disposal experts said a remote control was used in the blast.

'A planted device was used for the explosion which was detonated by remote control. Up to 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of explosives were used in the blast' said bomb disposal chief Commander Abdul Razzak.

'Luckily the area was not that crowded. This huge quantity of explosives could have killed many people if exploded in a busy area' he said.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Resource-rich Baluchistan is home to a long-running separatist conflict that was revived in 2004 with nationalists seeking to stop what they see as the exploitation of the region's natural resources and alleged rights abuses.