QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) - A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded in Pakistan's restive southwestern province of Baluchistan on Saturday, killing three people including a paramilitary soldier and wounding 16 others, officials said.

The attack came when a patrolling vehicle of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) was passing through a busy market in Khuzdar town, some 270km south of Quetta, the capital of the province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.

"One FC person and two civilians were killed in the blast. At least 16 others including four FC men were wounded," Waheed Shah, the administration chief in Khuzdar, told AFP.

"The bomb was planted on a motorcycle parked alongside the road. It was exploded through remote control when the patrolling vehicle came closer," Shah said.

Another senior official in the region, Akbar Harifal, confirmed the details.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. But Baluch separatists are active in the area and often attack government forces and installations.

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.