QUETTA: A blast targeted a paramilitary Frontier Corps vehicle in southwest Pakistan and wounded two soldiers and a civilian on Monday, officials said, in the latest of a string of attacks to rattle the restive Balochistan province.
The bomb attack occurred days after the Pakistan Army cleared the Naushki and Panjgur towns and regained control of two paramilitary camps from militants of the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). Twenty militants and nine security men were killed in the clashes that lasted for over 70 hours, according to the Pakistani military.
An FC spokesperson confirmed the blast injured two soldiers and partially damaged the FC vehicle in Sariab Mill area on the outskirts of Quetta.
The attack was carried out using an improvised explosive device (IED) that was mounted on a motorbike, according to the police. A civilian also sustained injuries in the attack.
“Unknown persons planted the IED on a motorbike and parked it along the road. The device exploded with a huge bang when the forces’ convoy passed by,” Qadir Qumbrani, in-charge of the New Sariab police station, told Arab News.
He said they had cordoned off the area and were on a hunt for those behind the attack.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Baloch separatists often target security forces in southwest Pakistan, which shares a long and porous border with Iran and Afghanistan.
The province has been marred by an insurgency for the last two decades, fueled by anger that its abundant reserves of natural resources are not relieving citizens from crushing poverty.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project has inflamed grievances, with claims the vast influx of investment does not benefit locals. Separatist militants have frequently targeted Chinese interests, and while the economic corridor offers a lucrative gateway for China to the Indian Ocean, the security of its workers has long been a concern.
About the fresh spate of violence in Balochistan, Pakistani officials have said that hostile agencies have been providing support to militants, particularly Baloch separatist groups, to target Pakistani forces and civilians.
Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Qudus Bizenjo has announced he would raise the issue at the diplomatic level with the Iranian and Afghan government.
“Our intelligence agencies have intercepted the communication between terrorists who attacked the forces’ camps in Balochistan and their handlers who were giving them directions by sitting in Afghanistan,” he said at a news conference in Naushki on Sunday.
“Now terrorists are using the Iranian soil against Pakistan,” Bizenjo added.