Islamabad [Pakistan], March 17: A roadside bomb blast near a bus carrying security forces in the Pakistani province of Balochistan has killed at least five officers and wounded dozens, police say. The attack comes less than a week after a deadly train hijacking incident in the southwestern province.
The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for the attack in Noshki district of Balochistan. The separatist group was also behind the train hijacking in which dozens were killed.
Another police official, Zafar Zamanani, said the blast badly damaged another bus nearby. The dead and wounded were transported to a nearby hospital. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti condemned the attack and expressed sorrow over the loss of life. "Those who play with the peace of Balochistan will be brought to a tragic end," Bugti said in an official press release.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also condemned the attack, which comes as Pakistan deals with a growing security crisis in its regions bordering Afghanistan.
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder said local sources told Al Jazeera the attack was carried out on a convoy of at least eight buses carrying security personnel from Noshki to Taftan, near the border with Iran.
"First, there was an improvised explosive device, and then a volley of fire from the attackers. The local sources are saying that they fear the death toll may climb," he said, reporting from the capital
Islamabad.
The incident comes less than a week after the BLA ambushed the Jaffar Express, took about 400 people on board hostage and killed 26 of them, including soldiers, before security forces launched an operation and killed all 33 attackers.
Pakistan claimed on Friday that the hijacking of the train last week was carried out by "terrorists" communicating with "handlers in Afghanistan" while alleging that India was the mastermind behind it.
"We must understand that in this terrorist incident in Balochistan, and others before, the main sponsor is eastern neighbour [India]," Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the director general for the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said during a news conference in Islamabad.
Balochistan has been struggling with a lack of security for decades. The region is home to several armed groups, including the BLA, which has been seeking Balochistan's complete independence from Pakistan. Since 2006, the group has been banned by Pakistan and the United States, which designates it as a "terrorist" organisation.
Balochistan is Pakistan's largest province, home to about 15 million people. But despite its vast resources, it remains widely underdeveloped. Baloch people make up 3.6 percent of Pakistan's population.
Ethnic Baloch residents have long accused the central government of discrimination - a charge Islamabad denies.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which lies to the north of Balochistan and shares a border with Afghanistan, the provincial chief minister, Ali Amin Gandapur, condemned a series of attacks on police across the province. He did not provide casualty numbers, but the Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, said there had been 16 attacks in the past 24 hours.
Source: Qatar Tribune
