6 FC troops killed in Quetta bomb attack

Two proscribed groups claim responsibility

QUETTA:

A homemade bomb attack targeting a paramilitary patrol vehicle killed at least six soldiers on the outskirts of Quetta on Monday as militant violence surged in the restive Balochistan province after a relatively long lull. One soldier was also wounded in the attack for which two proscribed militant groups claimed responsibility.

Militants remotely detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by a roadside in the coal-mining area of Marget when a patrol vehicle of the Frontier Corps (FC) drove past around noon, said Khan Wasey, a spokesman for the paramilitary force. Five paramilitary soldiers died on the spot and two others received shrapnel wounds.

Security officials cordoned off the area and drove the casualties to the Combined Military Hospital in Quetta where one of them died during the course of treatment.

“One of the two injured died at the hospital, taking the death toll to six,” said another FC spokesperson Manzoor Ahmed. The dead have been identified as Awais Muhammad, Muhammad Qaseem, Fareed, Muhammad Saleem, Mubashir Nadeem and Muhamamd Aqeel.

According to AFP, the Baloch Liberation Army, one of the several proscribed Baloch separatist groups, claimed responsibility for the deadly attack. “We detonated a remote-controlled bomb and then ambushed the security forces personnel,” said group spokesman Meerak Baloch. “This is part of our war against security forces.”

Surprisingly however, an offshoot of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed his group detonated the IED. “TTP’s special unit MSG carried out the IED attack on the FC vehicle,” Muhammad Khorasani, the spokesperson for his eponymous faction of TTP, said in a statement. He further claimed that TTP fighters managed to escape from the scene after carrying out the attack.

Funeral prayers for the slain FC soldiers were offered in Ghazaband Scout Quetta where Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri, his cabinet members, and several army and FC officials were also present. Zehri condemned the attack and ordered the law enforcement agencies to apprehend the culprits.

Monday’s attack was the biggest on security forces in the province since the turn of the year when two Pakistan Coast Guard officials were killed and three others injured in an IED attack in the Jiwani area of Gwadar district on January 9.

“A single cabin vehicle guarding a Pakistan Coast Guards water tanker hit an improvised explosive device (IED) planted on a roadside in the Jiwani area,” a Levies official had told newsmen. “As a result, two Coast Guards officials were killed on the spot and three others sustained injuries,” he said. The uptick in violence came after a relatively long hiatus as a low-key separatist insurgency weakened as a result of sustained security operations in Balochistan which is also riven by militant and sectarian violence.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2016.