QUETTA: Four policemen were injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Mianghundi of the provincial capital on Monday.

According to police, the bomb was fitted in a motorcycle parked near a road and when a police patrol passed by, the device exploded, wounding the policemen and badly damaging their vehicle.

Personnel of security forces rushed to the area of the blast and took the injured to a nearby hospital. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

There has been a rise in bomb attacks in Balochistan since the beginning of this year even though bomb attacks elsewhere in the country have dropped significantly.

Law enforcement personnel have been specifically targeted.

In the first week of March, there was a bomb explosion on a rail track in the border town of Chaman in Qila Abdullah district, injuring five, including two children.

Four personnel of the Frontier Corps were martyred in an attack in Panjgur district when unidentified armed men opened fire on them during a change of shifts at two checkposts on Feb 18.

This was the second attack on the paramilitary force within 24 hours.

In the first attack (Feb 16), two FC soldiers were martyred in an attack in the town of Loralai.

On Jan 30, nine people, including three policemen, were martyred in a terrorist attack when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on the office premises of the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Zhob Range, Loralai.

The gun-and-bomb attack took place when several candidates were taking a written test on the grounds of the DIG’s office for recruitment in the police department.

The Inspector General of Police, Balochistan, Mohsin Butt, confirmed the terrorist attack and said the candidates were the target of the attackers.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2019