QUETTA: At least four people, including two police officers and a minor girl, were killed on Monday when a blast targeted a police vehicle at a busy market in southwestern Pakistan, officials said.
The blast struck the capital of southwestern Pakistan's Quetta city during the afternoon at the crowded Kandahari Bazar. A large number of people were present at the time of the explosion, mostly to shop for the upcoming Eid Al Fitr holidays.
Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province by land size yet its most impoverished province, has been the center of an insurgency by separatist groups who say they are fighting what they see as the unfair exploitation of the province’s gas and mineral wealth by Pakistan’s richer, more powerful provinces.
Over the past couple of decades, the province has seen militants carry out sectarian attacks and target Pakistan's security forces.
“A remote-controlled explosive device was fitted inside a motorbike which exploded when the vehicle of a senior police official was passing through the Kandhari Bazar,” Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Quetta Police, Azfar Mahesar, told Arab News.
Mahesar confirmed the police officer's gunman, his driver and a minor girl were among the four who died in the blast, adding that 15 others were also injured in the explosion.
Senior police officers and ministers visited the Civil Hospital Quetta where the injured were being treated.
“We have shifted 15 injured, including women, to the Trauma Center for better medical care," Waseem Baig, the hospital's spokesperson, told Arab News. "We have injured people who are being operated on in the hospital."
In a statement released to the press, the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack, adding that its fighters had targeted SP Investigation Saddar Naseer-ul-Hassan Shah’s vehicle in the marketplace.
The group accused Hassan of being involved in "inhumane treatment" of Baloch civilians under the prefix of investigations.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the blast, expressing sorrow over the loss of lives and demanded an inquiry report on the incident.
Chief Minister Balochistan Mir Abdul Qudus Bizenjo also condemned the attack and ordered Balochistan's top cop to strengthen security arrangements in the province before Eid.
“Terrorists targeting innocent people in the holy month of Ramadan don’t deserve to be called human,” Bizenjo said in his statement.
Balochistan has seen an uptick in violence over the past couple of days. On Sunday, two policemen of the special Eagle Force in Balochistan were attacked by militants on Sunday evening at a neighborhood in the Kuchlak district, located at the outskirts of Quetta. During the exchange of fire, one militant was killed.
