QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) -- A truck carrying a marriage party hit a landmine in Pakistan's restive southwestern province of Baluchistan Friday, killing 26 people and injuring seven, a provincial official said.

The blast happened on a remote mountain trail near the town of Rakhni, around 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of the provincial capital Quetta, Baluchistan government spokesman Raziq Bugti told AFP.

No one claimed responsibility for planting the mine, but Baluchistan is in the grip of a sporadic insurgency by anti-government tribesmen pressing for a share in the income from the region's vast natural resources.

"The people in the truck were all traveling to attend a marriage when it hit at least one anti-tank mine and there was a very heavy blast. The vehicle was completely destroyed," Bugti said. "We know that 26 people died and seven were injured. There were women and children in the vehicle and we are trying to get the details of how many."

The injured are being shifted to the nearby town of Barkhan and paramilitary troops have sealed off the site of the explosion, he added.

The road where the explosion happened is often used by army and paramilitary forces and may have been targeted for that reason, officials said.

"The number of casualties and the damage suggest that there could have been more than one landmine but we have not confirmed that at this stage," Bugti said.

Pakistan has moved thousands of troops into Baluchistan since a deadly rocket barrage on the country's biggest natural gas plant in January 2005 sparked the current wave of unrest.

A man was killed and seven others were injured by other landmine blasts in the province on Thursday.

Three Chinese engineers and their driver were shot dead in Baluchistan on February 15.

On February 5 at least 12 people were killed and 13 injured when a powerful bomb exploded on a passenger bus in the province.

The ethnic Baluch tribesmen want some of the proceeds from the sparsely populated province's stores of natural gas and also oppose the creation of military garrisons in the area.

Security officials admit there has been a rise in the violence since the government ordered a fresh crackdown in December 2005 after rockets hit the town of Kohlu during a visit by President Pervez Musharraf.