8 cops killed, 23 injured in three suicide attacks in Balochistan

Karachi, April 24

At least eight policemen were killed and 23 others injured on Tuesday in three separate suicide attacks within an hour targeting security personnel in Pakistan’s restive south-western Balochistan province.

One suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a police truck on Airport Road in the provincial capital Quetta, killing at least eight security personnel and injuring 15 others, rescue and security officials were quoted as saying by the Express Tribune.

“It is a suicide attack,” Balochistan police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari said.

Half an hour earlier, two suicide bombers struck a Frontier Corps (FC) check post on the outskirts of Quetta.

“The FC soldiers reacted swiftly as a result of which the two suicide bombers were killed in the firing,” said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistan Army’s media arm.

Eight security personnel were injured in the attack.

“It was a targeted attack on the security forces carried out by militants but due to the swift reaction of the FC soldiers there were no casualties,” Aslam Tareen, the Director-General of Civil Defence, told the media.

He said while one suicide bomber was killed immediately the other was able to detonate himself before being gunned down.

The dead and injured were shifted to a local hospital as security forces cordoned off the area and launched search for the militants.

According to Civil Hospital spokesperson Wasim Baig, 15 injured were brought to the hospital and being treated by doctors.

Nobody took responsibility of the attacks but the Taliban militants and Baloch nationalists often target security forces in the area.

In recent weeks, the militants have also stepped up attacks on the members of the minority Christian and Shia Hazara Muslim communities in Quetta. — PTI