https://arab.news/zdzha
- Police van was targeted near a crowded market in Quetta, injuring 17 people including policemen
- No group claimed responsibility for attack in Balochistan, site of a decades-long separatists insurgency
QUETTA: A health official said on Thursday two dead bodies and 17 injured people had been brought to a hospital in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta after a bomb attack on a police van.
Footage seen by Arab News showed a damaged police mobile van standing on a crowded 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.
“We have received two dead bodies of civilians and 17 injured including four policemen,” Waseem Baig, the spokesman for the Civil Hospital, told Arab News. “Five injured are in critical condition and being treated at the trauma center of the hospital.”
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.
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 input from AFP