Mohammad Ajmal

A powerful explosion ripped through a mosque in southwest Pakistan during Friday evening prayers, killing a senior police officer and at least 11 others, police said.

The bombing also wounded 11 other worshipers in the city of Quetta, the capital of the restive Baluchistan province, said local police chief Mohammad Ajmal.

A suicide bomber blew himself up in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Feb. 1, killing 10 people and wounding 20 after joining a queue to enter an office of the civil order police, a senior official said.

Kabul was hit last month by a series of suicide attacks as the Taliban have stepped up their campaign against the Western-backed government.