Daily Times

QUETTA: A bomb Monday killed a police chief and his guard, and wounded 11 others in a southwestern Pakistani town bordering Afghanistan, officials said, the latest attack to strike the restive area.

The bombing took place in Chaman, a tense border town in southwestern Balochistan province, which has seen many bombings and extremist attacks in the past. “Senior police officer Sajid Khan Mohmand and his guard were martyred, and 11 others were wounded in the bomb blast,” Balochistan government spokesman Anwar Kakar told AFP. He said according to initial reports the bomb was planted on a roadside in a motorcycle, which exploded when Mohmand’s vehicle passed by. Two senior government officials confirmed the attack and casualties, saying police were targeted. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Tribal rebels, Taliban and other militant groups have carried out attacks against security forces in the province recently. Pakistan has been battling insurgency in mineral-rich Balochistan, the country’s most restive province, since 2004, with hundreds of soldiers and militants killed in the fighting. Bordering Iran and Afghanistan, it is the largest of Pakistan’s four provinces. A greater push towards peace and development by authorities has reduced the violence considerably in recent years. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the terrorist attack on police convoy in Chaman.

Nawaz expressed deep grief and sorrow over the loss of precious lives in the attack. He prayed for eternal peace of the departed souls and grant of courage to the bereaved families to bear this irreparable loss. Earlier, an improvised explosive device (IED) blast near a security checkpost killed two security personnel in Khurram Agency near Pakistan-Afghan border. The troops were fetching water from a reservoir when an IED went off. The rescue teams rushed to the spot when two more IED exploded, killing two troops and injuring four others. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Published in Daily Times, July 11^th , 2017.