Six people, including five Levies Force personnel, were injured in a bomb blast targeting the convoy of Kech Deputy Commissioner (DC) Major (Retd) Bashir Barech in Turbat, Balochistan on Monday, according to police.
Kech Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Captain Zohaib Mohsin said dawn.com that a remotely operated bomb was used in the attack on Press Club Road.
“The bomb, which was attached to a motorcycle, was activated by remote control as the DC convoy passed through the area,” he said, adding that five Levies staff and a bystander were injured in the incident.
The center of Kech remains safe, he added. One of the vehicles in their convoy was also severely damaged, the SSP said.
Police and Border Force personnel reached the scene of the incident and were further investigating the matter, he said.
Pakistan has witnessed a rise in terrorist attacks, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, mainly targeting police, law enforcement personnel and security forces. The rise followed the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s move to end a ceasefire agreement with the government in 2022.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, during his speech at the Balochistan Workshop in Islamabad, lamented the resurgence of terrorism in Balochistan and other regions, and called for a serious look at “the reasons that led to the unrest”.
One of the recent terrorist incidents in the province took place on October 9, when a bomb exploded on a railway track near Dera Murad Jamali. The road connects Balochistan with the rest of the country.
A railway employee died in the incident, while railway services were suspended following the fourth such incident in a month.
This incident followed an explosion in the provincial capital of Quetta on September 30. At least 10 people were killed and 32 injured in the incident when a bomb blast devastated a busy road near the Quetta FC headquarters.
A week before that, women and children were among 12 people injured when the Quetta-bound Jaffar Express was attacked by a bomb in Spizend area of Balochistan’s Mastung district.
In another explosion near a taxi rank in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area of Chaman on September 18, at least five people were killed and one injured.
Similarly, at least five people were killed and 29 injured in an explosion at a Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) rally at Quetta’s Shahwani Stadium on September 2.
