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The chief minister of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan region escaped an assassination attempt early Tuesday in the provincial capital of Quetta, when an explosion set off by a suicide bomber rocked his convoy, according to Abid Notkani, the Quetta police chief. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Mohammad Aslam Khan Raisani, a member of the governing Pakistan Peoples Party, was unhurt but his chief security officer and several policemen were wounded. Two vehicles in the chief minister’s convoy were damaged in the blast, which left charred human body parts strewn across the usually busy Sariab Road.

Baluchistan Province borders Iran and Afghanistan and makes up one third of Pakistan’s territory. Members of the Baluchi population say they feel politically and economically marginalized and have long demanded greater autonomy and a bigger share in their province’s natural wealth.

For the last several years, the Pakistani Army has been trying to quell an armed rebellion by Baluchi separatists and nationalists. At the same time, the Taliban have managed to maintain their presence in areas of the province that border Afghanistan.