A bomb killed a woman and two children Wednesday as they shopped in a Pakistani market for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr.

A bomb killed a woman and two children Wednesday as they shopped in a Pakistani market for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, officials said.

The bomb exploded in the town of Mastung, 40 kilometers south of the Baluchistan provincial capital of Quetta as crowds -- mostly women and children -- were shopping for Eid al-Fitr expected on Thursday.

District administration official Syed Mehrab Shah confirmed the toll and said 11 others, mostly women and children, were wounded.

The child was a boy aged eight, he told AFP.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Nor it was clear why a shopping area frequented mostly by women had been targeted, officials said.

The bomb was planted just outside the market. Had it exploded inside, the number of casualties would have been higher, they said.

Eid al-Fitr, which will likely begin in Pakistan on Friday, marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.

Baluch rebels have been fighting since 2004 for political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's natural oil, gas and mineral resources.

Impoverished Baluchistan is also a flashpoint for surging sectarian violence between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and Shiites, who account for around a fifth of the country's 180 million people.