QUETTA: A prominent Baloch separatist outfit this week claimed responsibility for an attack by a woman suicide bomber targeting a convoy of Pakistani security forces that resulted in the killing of one paramilitary troop and injuries to four others in the southwestern Balochistan province. 

The attack took place in Balochistan’s Kalat district on Monday afternoon, when the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) convoy was en route to security forces’ mess from the FC Fort on N-25 Quetta-Karachi highway, according to Kalat Deputy Commissioner Bilal Shabbir.

The Baloch Liberation Army, (BLA) the most prominent ethnic Baloch separatist outfits in Balochistan, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Monday night. 

“A female suicide bomber struck the security forces convoy killing one soldier of the paramilitary Frontier Corps on the spot and injuring four others who were shifted to hospital,” DC Shabbir told Arab News.

“The female suicide bomber was standing outside the FC fort located at the highway and detonated herself when they were moving from the fort to the security forces’ mess in Kalat.”

The BLA has used woman fighters in its ranks to carry out suicide attacks against Pakistani security forces and Chinese nationals over the last few years.

In 2022, Shari Baloch, a woman suicide bomber linked to the BLA carried out a suicide attack that ripped through a passenger van, killing three Chinese nationals and a Pakistani in the southern port city of Karachi, according to Pakistani authorities.

In November last year, Pakistani officials arrested a woman among three suspects involved in a deadly suicide bombing, also claimed by the BLA, that killed two Chinese nationals and a Pakistani man outside the Karachi airport on Oct. 6, 2024.

Balochistan has for years been the scene of an insurgency, where separatist groups have frequently attacked police and security forces as well as civilians and foreigners they see as “outsiders” in the resource-rich region, where China has been building a deep-sea port in Gwadar on the Arabian Sea and has made huge investments under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The separatists accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources. Successive Pakistani governments deny the allegations and say they have prioritized Balochistan’s development through investments in health, education and infrastructure projects.