A roadside bomb exploded, killing three people in insurgency-hit southwestern Balochistan province on Sunday According to Police Officer Mohammad Rahim, the bomb was planted on a dirt road in the Balgatar area of Kech district and was detonated remotely. Three men, two of whom were brothers, were killed while on their way to a family gathering, and a privately owned car was destroyed, he said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast but suspicion falls on Baloch nationalists turned separatist groups who have been involved in low-level insurgency for over two decades in the gas and mineral-rich province. The groups have been calling for independence from the central government in Islamabad.
Kech district and surrounding areas have suffered from insurgency for years. Insurgent groups have claimed responsibility for attacks on security forces and civilian targets in recent months.
Islamic militants and a banned Sunni extremist group also operate in the province.
It is worth mentioning the country which is already facing multiple issues, has witnessed an uptick in terror activities, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, after the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ended its ceasefire with the government in November last year.
Earlier in January this year, terrorists unleashed an explosion in a crowded mosque inside a highly secured police compound in the city of Peshawar, resulting in the killing of at least 59 security personnel. Later, the death toll rose to over 100.
Similar incident in Kocha Risaldar
Last year, a similar attack inside a Shia mosque in Peshawar's Kocha Risaldar area in the city killed 63 people. The TTP set up as an umbrella group of several militant outfits in 2007, called off a ceasefire with the federal government and ordered its militants to stage terrorist attacks across the country.
The group, which is believed to be close to al-Qaeda, has been blamed for several deadly attacks across Pakistan, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases, and the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. In 2014, the Pakistani Taliban stormed the Army Public School (APS) in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least 150 people, including 131 students. The attack sent shockwaves across the world and was widely condemned.
(With inputs from agency)
