QUETTA: Three officials of the Balochistan Constabulary police force in Pakistan’s southwest were killed on Tuesday in an IED blast that targeted their vehicle, according to a statement from the local government.
The bus was carrying around 40 police officers when it was hit by the blast in Balochistan’s Mastung district, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the provincial capital Quetta, local administration official Raja Muhammad Akram told media.
Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the provincial government, said the vehicle was returning from Kalat when it was targeted with an improvised explosive device (IED).
“Three personnel of the Balochistan Constabulary were martyred in the blast,” he added.
Pakistan has been battling a separatist insurgency in Balochistan for decades, where militants target state forces, foreign nationals, and non-locals in the mineral-rich southwestern province bordering Afghanistan and Iran. The separatists seek independence from the Pakistani state.
Although Pakistani authorities say they have quelled the insurgency, violence in Balochistan has persisted.
No group has claimed Tuesday morning’s attack. However, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the most active group in the region and often carries out deadly attacks against security forces.
Last month, ethnic Baloch separatists attacked a train with 450 passengers on board, sparking a two-day siege during which dozens of people were killed.
More than 200 people, mostly security officials, have been killed in attacks since the start of the year by armed groups fighting the government in both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, according to an AFP tally.
Last year was the deadliest year in a decade in Pakistan, following a trend of rising militancy since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in 2021.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a statement, denounced Tuesday’s attack and vowed to continue the “fight against terrorism” until its eradication.
With inputs from AFP
Three Balochistan Constabulary officers killed in blast in southwest Pakistan
https://arab.news/jd9ru
Three Balochistan Constabulary officers killed in blast in southwest Pakistan
- Bus was carrying around 40 police officers when it was hit by IED blast in Mastung district
- Pakistan has been battling a low-level separatist insurgency in Balochistan for decades
No casualties as blast derails Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s south
- Passengers were stranded and railway staffers were clearing the track after blast, official says
- In March 2025, separatist militants hijacked the same train with hundreds of passengers aboard
QUETTA: A blast hit Jaffar Express and derailed four carriages of the passenger train in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Monday, officials said, with no casualties reported.
The blast occurred at the Abad railway station when the Peshawar-bound train was on its way to Sindh’s Sukkur city from Quetta, according to Pakistan Railways’ Quetta Division controller Muhammad Kashif.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, but passenger trains have often been targeted by Baloch separatist outfits in the restive Balochistan province that borders Sindh.
“Four bogies of the train were derailed due to the intensity of the explosion,” Kashif told Arab News. “No casualty was reported in the latest attack on passenger train.”
Another railway employee, who was aboard the train and requested anonymity, said the train was heading toward Sukkur from Jacobabad when they heard the powerful explosion, which derailed power van among four bogies.
“A small piece of the railway track has been destroyed,” he said, adding that passengers were now standing outside the train and railway staffers were busy clearing the track.
In March last year, fighters belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group had stormed Jaffar Express with hundreds of passengers on board and took them hostage. The military had rescued them after an hours-long operation that left 33 militants, 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
The passenger train, which runs between Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta and Peshawar in the country’s northwest, had been targeted in at least four bomb attacks last year since the March hijacking, according to an Arab News tally.
Pakistan Railways says it has beefed up security arrangements for passenger trains in the province and increased the number of paramilitary troops on Jaffar Express since the hijacking in March, but militants have continued to target them in the restive region.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the site of a decades-long insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups who often attack security forces and foreigners, and kidnap government officials.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.
