QUETTA: At least four persons were killed and four others were injured on Wednesday when an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion targeted a tribal elder in southwestern Pakistan, a police and government official confirmed.
The blast occurred in Naal, a small town located 55 kilometers from Khuzdar city in Pakistan’s restive southwestern Balochistan province on Wednesday.
Yasir Iqbal Dashti, Khuzdar deputy commissioner, told Arab News that the explosion was caused by explosives fitted inside a motorcycle. A Baloch tribal elder Samad Sumalani was the target of the attack, Dashti said.
“Four people were killed and four others injured after the IED exploded in a crowded street of Naal town,” Dashti said.
Bahawal Khan Pandrani, the station house officer (SHO) of the Naal Police Station, said unknown persons parked the explosive-laden motorbike near a garage where Sumalani was repairing his vehicle at the Naal Bazaar. Sumalani suffered minor injuries in the attack, he said. 
“Two vehicles and two motorbikes caught fire after the blast and turned into ashes,” Pandrani said. 
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion is likely to fall on ethnic Baloch separatist groups, mainly the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which often target tribal elders they see as backed by the state. 
Gas-and-rich Balochistan, which shares porous borders with Iran and Afghanistan, has long faced a low-level insurgency led by separatist groups like the BLA, who accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources, such as gold and copper, while neglecting the local population.
Pakistani governments deny these allegations, saying that it has prioritized Balochistan’s development through investments in health, education and infrastructure projects.
The BLA has emerged as a significant security threat in recent years, carrying out major attacks in Balochistan and Sindh provinces while targeting security forces, ethnic Punjabis and Chinese nationals working on development projects.
The latest attack in Khuzdar happened two days after a suicide attack targeting Pakistan’s security forces in Balochistan’s Kalat, carried out by a woman, killed one paramilitary soldier and injured four others.