QUETTA: Three paramilitary soldiers were killed and four were injured in Pakistan’s southwestern Kalat district on Saturday when their vehicle was targeted by an improvised explosive device, an official confirmed.
The blast targeted a Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle in the Askalko area in Kalat, located around 140 kilometers from Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta. The blast took place as the vehicle was passing through the area, an official confirmed.
Balochistan, which shares a porous border with Iran and Afghanistan, has witnessed a decades-long insurgency launched by ethnic Baloch separatists who have accused successive governments of unfairly exploiting the mineral-rich province of its resources, a claim denied by the state.
“An improvised explosive device (IED) was planted along the road in Askalko which exploded when the security forces’ vehicle was passing through the area,” Bilal Shabir, the deputy commissioner of Kalat, told Arab News.
“Three paramilitary soldiers were killed and four wounded in the attack on security forces in Kalat district.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, however, suspicion is likely to fall on the separatist militant outfit Balochistan Liberation Army. The BLA has often targeted Pakistani security forces, ethnic Punjabi laborers and travelers in the southwestern province.
In recent months, separatist outfits have stepped up attacks in Balochistan. Over 50 people including paramilitary soldiers were killed in widespread coordinated attacks by a Baloch separatist group in Kalat, Lasbela, Musakhail, Mastung and Kachi districts in the last week of August.
In September, unidentified armed men stormed a residential compound in Balochistan’s Turbat, killing seven laborers from Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province.
