Police officer killed, six others wounded in grenade attack in southwest Pakistan

A police officer examines the site of a bomb blast in Quetta on April 10, 2023. (AFP/file)
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Updated 08 April 2024
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Police officer killed, six others wounded in grenade attack in southwest Pakistan

  • No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack near Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province
  • Balochistan has long been plagued by an insurgency, with separatists seeking independence from Islamabad

QUETTA: A police officer died and six other officers were wounded in a grenade attack Monday at a mosque in southwestern Pakistan, authorities said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack near Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province.

Local police chief Nasir Shah said officers were still investigating.

In a statement, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi denounced the attack, which came a day after a motorcycle bomb killed two people and wounded five others in Khuzdar, a district the Balochistan province that has witnessed a surge in militant attacks in recent weeks.

For years, Balochistan has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad.

Although the government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in the province has persisted.