MASTUNG (The Thursday Times) — Security forces killed three terrorists after an explosives-laden vehicle was used to attack a Frontier Corps post on the N-25 highway in Balochistan’s Mastung district on Thursday, police said. Two civilians were killed in the blast and at least 16 people were injured.
The attack targeted the Kandawa post, about 10 kilometres from Mastung city on the national highway that links Quetta with Karachi. A Balochistan Police spokesperson called it a “cowardly attack at Kandawa Post on National Highway N-25 using an explosives-laden vehicle” and said security forces “thwarted the attack”. “Three terrorists were killed during the retaliatory operation,” the police said.
Police named the two civilians who died as Kaleemullah and Bibi Laiba. Their list of the injured names 13 civilians, among them a three-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, as well as three Frontier Corps personnel. The injured were taken to medical centres for treatment.
The explosion damaged nearby houses and a mosque, police said. Officials said five houses near the post were destroyed.
Police said the attackers belonged to Fitna al-Hindustan, the name the state uses for Balochistan-based terrorist groups to highlight what it says is India’s role in terrorism in Pakistan. The banned Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack, according to reports.
“The attack demonstrates that these terrorists have no connection with the people of Balochistan,” the police statement said. It added that operations against “elements seeking to undermine peace, development, and prosperity in Balochistan” would continue.
Earlier this month, a soldier was martyred and 17 terrorists were killed in two intelligence-based operations in Balochistan’s Kachhi and Kharan districts, the military’s media wing said.
Terrorist attacks in Balochistan fell by 46% in October, from 132 in September to 71, according to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, an Islamabad think tank that tracks violence across the country.
