3 dead in grenade attacks on a store selling national flags ahead of Pakistan’s Independence Day

Associated Press

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Officials say suspected militants have hurled hand grenades at a house and store selling Pakistani national flags in the southwestern Baluchistan province, killing three people and wounding six others ahead of Pakistan’s independence day. A separatist group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in the provincial capital of Quetta. Wasim Baig, a spokesperson at a government hospital, said the facility received six injured people and three bodies after Tuesday’s attacks. The attacks came days after the separatist group in Baluchistan warned people not to celebrate the Wednesday holiday marking the Aug. 14, 1947, date of Pakistan’s independence from British colonial rule.