QUETTA: At least 12 people, including two policemen, were injured after an explosion near a police mobile on Quetta’s Eastern Bypass, police said on Wednesday. Rescuers found the wreckage of a motorcycle near the blast site, and according to police, the motorcycle was rigged with explosives. According to law enforcement officers, a bomb disposal unit was called to the scene and the nature of the explosion was investigated.
The injured have since been shifted to Sandeman Civil Hospital, police said. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti condemned the attack and ordered the concerned authorities to provide medical facilities to those injured in the blast. “Terrorists will be brought to justice,” he said, adding that action against them would continue.
The blast came just two days after a “remote controlled bomb blast” targeted a police van guarding a convoy of foreign envoys heading to Malam Jabba in Swat Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district on Sunday. Police said the attack targeted a group of 11 foreign diplomats, killing one officer and injuring four others.
All the envoys were safe after the blast and were taken to Islamabad, police said. Since the return to power of the Taliban rulers in 2021, Afghanistan, especially in the border provinces of KP and Balochistan, has been beset by increasing violent attacks. The two most vulnerable provinces saw a sharp increase in deadly attacks last month, according to data from the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS).
A digital database of security incidents maintained by an Islamabad-based think tank indicated an alarming situation as the number of attacks jumped from 38 in July to 59 in August. These incidents included 29 attacks in KP, 28 in Balochistan and two in Punjab. Meanwhile, KP witnessed 25 casualties in 29 terrorist attacks during August. “The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group, Lashkar-e-Islam, Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) and several local Taliban groups were allegedly involved in these attacks,” the report said.
