According to officials, a suspected suicide blast in Pakistan’s Balochistan province killed at least nine police officers and injured 11 others on Monday. This attack is the latest in a string of recent assaults on security personnel in the South Asian country.
The incident occurred in the Sibi district of the province when a vehicle carrying police officers was targeted, as stated by Kachhi Police senior superintendent, Mehmood Notezai. “Preliminary evidence suggests it was a suicide attack,” he said, adding that an investigation is ongoing. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
Sibi’s Combined Military Hospital administration said that three of the injured officers are in critical condition and are receiving hospital treatment.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province in terms of area, has been experiencing an insurgency by separatists demanding independence from the country for decades. They claim that the state is monopolizing and exploiting the region’s mineral resources.
The Monday blast was the third significant attack against Pakistani security personnel in as many months, indicating the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the country.
In February, militants stormed the police headquarters in the southern city of Karachi, killing at least four people and injuring 14 others. Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Pakistan’s Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to spokesman Mohammad Khorasani.
In January, a suicide bomb blast in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed at least 100 people, most of them police officials. The attack was one of the deadliest in the country in years. Initially, TTP officials claimed the explosion was “revenge” for the death of a TTP militant the previous year, but the group’s main spokesperson later denied involvement in the attack.
