Daily Times

QUETTA: At least six security personnel were martyred and three other injured as an explosion targeted a security forces vehicle in Balochistan’s Harnai district on Monday evening.

Miscreants targeted a Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle with an improvised explosive device (IED) in the Khost area of Harnai district, a senior administration officer said on the condition of anonymity, because he was not authorised to speak to the media. The officer added the explosion had severely damaged the vehicle of the security forces.

The FC personnel were on a routine patrol when their vehicle was targeted. The injured were rushed to Quetta for medical treatment.

Soon after the blast, a large contingent of security forces rushed to the spot for rescue efforts. An investigation into the incident was being carried out and a search operation had been launched in the nearby areas. Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri strongly condemned the blast and directed law enforcers to bring the perpetrators to book. “We will not spare the elements involved in this heinous act,” the chief minister said in a statement issued to the press after the incident.

The attack, which came as the nation celebrated Independence Day, has renewed fears of instability in the province.

Harnai borders Quetta district where an explosion on Saturday, August 12, had resulted in the martyrdom of eight army personnel. The explosion had targeted a vehicle carrying military personnel. “A man riding a motorbike came close to the army truck and blew himself up,” a senior official of the Bomb Disposal Squad had said on the blast site.

The Quetta explosion, which occurred near Pishin Stop, had claimed a total of 15 lives, including civilians, and left at least 32 injured.

At least 14 people – including seven policemen – lost their lives while 19 others were injured in a suicide blast that shook Shuhada Chowk in Quetta’s Gulistan Road area in June. Earlier in June, three security officials were injured after an improvised explosive device (IED) seemingly targeted their vehicle in the Johan area of Kalat. Days later, two navy sailors were martyred and at least three others were wounded when their vehicle was attacked in the Jiwani area of Gwadar district.

Two Chinese nationals, a man and a woman, teaching at a private language school in Quetta were kidnapped from the Jinnah Town neighbourhood on May 24 by gunmen dressed as police officials. The couple was later killed by Islamic State group, which had claimed responsibility for their abduction. Separately, on Monday security forces arrested three children allegedly trained to carry out terrorist attacks. Their ‘trainer’, however, escaped.

District Police Officer (DPO) Noor Muhammad said that three children, aged between 10 and 12 years, trained to carry out terrorist attacks were detained by the security forces in Daki tehsil of Loralai district in Balochistan. However, their trainer and abettors fled prior to action of the security forces.

The nabbed children belonged to Ghousabad area of Quetta.

Published in Daily Times, August 15^th 2017.