QUETTA: At least 12 soldiers were injured, two of them seriously, in a suicide attack on a check-post of the Frontier Corps (FC) in Baleli, a locality on the outskirts of the city, on Tuesday night.

Two of the attackers were killed in an exchange of fire with security forces.

The injured FC personnel were shifted to the Com­bined Military Hospital, Quetta.

According to security officials, three armed men suddenly attacked the FC check-post. They started firing at the check-post using automatic weapons. The FC personnel manning the check-post took position and returned fire.

More FC troops from nearby headquarters of the Ghazaband Scouts rushed to the site and cordoned off the area. A fierce gun battle ensued and continued for half an hour. In the meantime, one of the attackers who was wearing a suicide jacket managed to reach near the check-post and blew himself up, resulting in injuries to 12 security personnel.

“Our 12 soldiers got injured in the suicide bombing as the suicide bomber detonated his suicide vest near the check-post,” a senior security official told Dawn, adding that the condition of two of the injured soldiers was serious.

He said that security forces killed two terrorists in the gun battle with attackers who were carrying grenades and a huge quantity of automatic weapons and ammunition.

Soon after the attack, a heavy contingent of FC personnel and policemen rushed to the site and after cordoning off the area shifted the injured FC personnel to the hospital.

The FC check-post and many vehicles parked in the nearby area where damaged in the suicide blast while windowpanes of many nearby buildings were smashed.

The Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) of Civil Defence collected evidence from the place of the explosion. “Around 10kg explosives were used in the suicide jacket for the attack,” said Aslam Tareen, Director General of the BDS.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2018