Targeted bomb blast in Pakistan's Quetta injures 12, including policemen

Quetta, Sep 25 (IANS) As targeted attacks on police officials continue in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, a bomb blast left 12 people injured in Quetta's Bhora Mandi area along the Eastern Bypass, on Wednesday.

The injured included at least two policemen. As per the police sources, the bomb was planted in a motorcycle parked close to a police vehicle.

The injured have been shifted to Sandeman Civil Hospital while a bomb disposal squad cordoned off the area to start a probe into the incident.

The nature of the explosion is yet to be ascertained. Till now, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, it is expected that the separatist militant group operating in Balochistan, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) along with its multiple affiliate groups are responsible for the attack.

The incident comes only two days after a similar attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Swat district when a police van in a convoy of vehicles carrying several foreign envoys was targeted in a remote-controlled bomb blast. The Swat attack claimed the life of one officer, while four other officers were injured.

Terror attacks in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan provinces have surged considerably since 2021, after Afghanistan was taken over by the Afghan Taliban.

According to a report compiled by the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS), there has been a major surge in terror attacks in the both provinces during the current year.

As per the report statistics, the number of attacks in these regions surged from 38 in July 2024 to 59 in August, with at least 29 incidents reported in KP and 28 in Balochistan.

Pakistan government and the military establishment has launched Operation 'Azm-e-Istehkam' in June 2024, which it claims is a kinetic operation with a renewed national counter-terrorism initiative aimed at eradicating terrorism under the country’s National Action Plan (NAP).

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