Mastermind of Karachi Chinese consulate attack killed in Afghanistan

QUETTA: Pakistani officials and a spokesman for a separatist group say a separatist leader authorities blamed for masterminding last month's attack on China's consulate in the southern city of Karachi has been killed in Afghanistan.

Baluch Liberation Army spokesman Jeeyand Baloch said in a statement Wednesday that their top leader Aslam Baloch and five of his associates were 'martyred' in a blast. He did not say where the men were killed.

But an Afghan official says six people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a house Tuesday in the southern city of Kandahar.

The separatists' killing comes weeks after three gunmen attacked the Chinese consulate in Karachi, triggering a shootout that left the assailants, two police officers and two civilians dead.

Pakistan accuses Kabul of sheltering Baluch separatists.