QUETTA: Three civilians were killed and 21 injured on Thursday after a police van was targeted with a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) blast at a busy street in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta, a police official said.
Footage seen by Arab News showed a damaged police mobile van standing on a crowned double road in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan province, as residents attempted to remove a burning motorbike parked close to the vehicle. The blast happened near a crowded market where people were busy with shopping ahead of the religious festival of Eid Al-Fitr, which begins next week.
“An improvised explosive device (IED) fitted inside a motorbike exploded when a police van was passing through the double road area in Quetta,” Muhammad Baloch, senior superintendent of police (SSP) operations in Quetta, told Arab News.
“Three civilians were killed in the latest attack on the police force and 21, including three policemen, were injured,” he added.
Baloch said as per initial investigations, the explosion was caused by a remotely controlled IED fitted inside a motorcycle.
He said that the bomb disposal squad is assessing the quantity of the explosive material used in the attack.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack in Balochistan, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), the largest and strongest of several ethnic Baloch insurgent groups which have been fighting for decades to win independence for the mineral-rich province, home to major China-led projects including a port and gold and copper mines.
The attack on the police van comes a day after gunmen killed at least six people in “coordinated” attacks in Balochistan that largely targeted bus passengers based on their ethnicity, police said on Thursday.
“We have received two dead bodies of civilians and 22 injured, including four policemen,” Waseem Baig, the spokesman for the Civil Hospital in Quetta, told Arab News. “Five injured are in critical condition and being treated at the trauma center of the hospital.”
Earlier this month, ethnic Baloch separatists attacked a train with 450 passengers on board, sparking a two-day siege during which dozens of people were killed.
Days later, at least five paramilitaries were killed in a vehicle-borne suicide attack. Both assaults were claimed by the separatist BLA.
The group also launched coordinated attacks last year that included taking control of a major highway and shooting dead travelers from other ethnic groups, stunning the country.
The militants have additionally targeted energy projects with foreign financing, most notably from China, accusing outsiders of exploiting the resource-rich region while excluding residents in the poorest part of Pakistan.
Last year was the deadliest year in a decade in Pakistan, following a trend of rising militancy since the Taliban took control in Afghanistan in 2021.
With inputs from AFP
