Eight people, including seven Levies Force personnel, were injured in a bomb blast targeting the convoy of Kech Deputy Commissioner (DC) Major (retd) Bashir Barech in Balochistan’s Turbat on Monday, according to police.
Kech Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Captain (retd) Zohaib Mohsin told Dawn.com that a remote-controlled bomb was used in the attack that took place at Press Club road.
“The bomb, which was planted in a motorcycle, was triggered using a remote control when the DC’s convoy was passing by the area,” he said, adding that five Levies personnel and a passerby were injured in the incident.
He later told Dawn.com that the number of the injured had increased to eight, including seven Levies personnel.
The Kech DC remained safe as he was in a bulletproof vehicle, he added. He was travelling from his home to office and his car was only partially damaged in the incident, the SSP said.
“The blast was so intense that four of the vehicles parked nearby and closely located buildings were also damaged,” SSP Mohsin added.
Police and Frontier Corps personnel had reached the site of the incident and were further investigating the matter, he said.
Pakistan has witnessed an increase in terrorist attacks, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, mostly targeting police, law enforcement personnel, and security forces. The increase followed the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s move to end a ceasefire agreement with the government in 2022.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, while addressing the Balochistan Workshop in Islamabad, regretted the resurgence of terrorism in Balochistan and other regions, calling for a serious look at “the reasons that led to the unrest”.
One of the recent incidents of terrorism in the province took place on October 9, when a bomb exploded on a railway track near Dera Murad Jamali. The track connects Balochistan to the rest of the country.
A railway employee was killed in the incident while train services were suspended following the fourth incident of such nature in a month.
This incident followed a blast in the provincial capital of Quetta on September 30. At least 10 people were martyred and 32 injured in the incident when a bomb blast had ripped through a busy street near Quetta’s FC headquarters.
A week prior to that, women and children were among 12 people injured when the Quetta-bound Jaffar Express was targeted in a bomb blast in the Spizend area of Balochistan’s Mastung district.
In another explosion near a taxi stand in the Pak-Afghan border area of Chaman on September 18, at least five people were killed and one was injured.
Similarly, at least five people were killed and 29 injured in a blast at a rally of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) at Quetta’s Shahwani Stadium on September 2.