QUETTA: A constable was among two people killed and three others injured in a militant attack in Pakistan’s southwestern Quetta city on Monday, a police official said, reflecting a surge in militant attacks in Balochistan.

The attack took place in Quetta, the provincial capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, when a police team intercepted a suspicious vehicle for snap checking.

Police chased after the vehicle after it fled, an official said. He said unidentified armed men in the vehicle opened fire on the police team at Quetta’s Joint Road, a densely populated area in the city.

“One police constable and a passer-by were killed in the attack and three people were injured,” Imran Shoukat, deputy inspector general (DIG) of Quetta police, told Arab News.

Shoukat said the attackers abandoned their vehicle and fled the area, adding that police have launched a search operation in nearby locations to hunt the militants.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, separatist militant groups, such as the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), have previously claimed responsibility for attacks targeting police and law enforcement agencies in Balochistan.

In September, two police constables were killed by unidentified armed men while guarding a polio vaccination team in Nushki district. In July, 30 police officers were killed after armed militants targeted a dam construction site in Ziarat district.

Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province by land mass but its poorest by almost all social and economic indicators. The province has suffered a low-scale insurgency waged by the ethnic Baloch separatist militant groups, who accuse the federal government of denying the local Baloch population of the province’s mineral resources.

The federal government denies the allegations and accuses separatist militants of being funded by India.