• Four security personnel among those martyred as explosive-laden van explodes at well-guarded entrance to Hali Road
• Four terrorists ‘in FC uniforms’ gunned down while trying to breach security installation

QUETTA: At least 10 people, including four security personnel, were martyred and over 30 others sustained injuries in a suicide car blast near the headquarters of the Frontier Corps, while five terrorists were killed while trying to breach the heavily guarded facility.

Police officials said a suicide bomber driving an explosive-laden van attempted to enter the well-guarded Hali Road from the Khojak Road area of Modal Town on Tuesday. At the entrance to Hali Road, the vehicle hit spikes and a barrier installed near the picket and exploded.

The blast claimed the lives of six civilians, while four personnel were martyred, they added.

Ten people lost their lives in the blast and 33 were injured, six of them seriously, Minister Health Bakht Muhammad Kakar told Dawn. There were at least two women among the seriously injured, he added.

Shortly after the blast, four alleged terrorists in FC uniforms entered Hali Road attempted to breach the FC headquarters amid heavy firing.

But security personnel foiled the atte­mpt. A gun battle with the terrorists ens­u­ed, who were armed with modern wea­pons and hand grenades, but they were gunned down by security personnel.

“In all, five terrorists have been killed. One in an explosive-laden vehicle and four were eliminated by the FC personnel in the gun battle,” said a senior official of the home department while talking to Dawn.

He disclosed that the attackers were wearing FC uniforms to dodge security.

“No terrorist could reach up to the gates of the FC headquarters,” security officials said.

They said that four AK-47 rifles, three grenade launchers, 15 grenades, hundreds of bullets and other items were recovered from the terrorists.

An eyewitness said that all the attackers were very young. “The FC snipers sitting on a nearby building targeted the attacks from the roof,” he told Dawn, adding that the attackers also lobbed hand grenades at the security men.

Security posts on both sides of Hali Road were destroyed in the huge explosion, and a large portion of a protective concrete wall was also damaged, while windowpanes and doors of nearby buildings, including the PTV Quetta Centre, MPAs’ hostel, bureau offices of private TV channels and newspapers were also shattered.

The security guard of a TV channel also sustained injuries in the blast, witnesses said.

They said the many of the victims were pedestrians and those travelling on the road at the time of the blast.

Following the incident, police and rescue workers rushed to the site and shifted the injured and the bodies to civil hospital, where the health minister had declared a state of emergency.

“Six seriously injured people were shifted to ICU,” hospital sources said, describing the condition of others “mostly stable”.

No one has claimed responsibility of the suicide attack so far.

But interestingly, the president and PM attributed differing identities to the terrorists who carried out the attack in Quetta.

A statement issued by the President’s Secretariat said President Asif Ali Zardari “strongly condemned the suicide attack in Quetta carried out by the Fitna-al-Khawarij, the misguided extremists acting on India’s agenda”.

However, the federal government posted on X that Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif had commended the security forces for killing the “terrorists of Fitna al Hindustan” who carried out the attack.

Fitna al Khwarij is a term the state uses to refer to terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), while Fitna al Hindustan refers to the allegedly India-backed Baloch separatist groups.

Balochistan Inspector General Mohammad Tahir visited the blast site along with senior police officers and was briefed on the initial evidence, the nature of the blast, the situation at the scene, and the progress of the investigation.

Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti strongly condemned the “terrorist attack”. A Balochistan government post on X, formerly Twitter, quoted him as saying that security forces gave a swift and effective response, eliminating four terrorists.

“The terrorists cannot weaken the nation’s resolve through cowardly acts. The sacrifices of the people and security forces will not go in vain. We remain committed to making Balochistan peaceful and secure. I express solidarity with the families of the martyrs, pray for the elevation of their ranks, and for the speedy recovery of the injured,” the CM stated.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2025