Terror in Chaman: Suicide bomber kills six at Friendship Gate

One FC soldier, two Afghan border guards killed in blast.

QUETTA:

A suicide bomber crossing into Pakistan from Afghanistan detonated the explosives strapped to his body when border guards stopped him at a crossing point in Chaman town on Wednesday. At least six people – three civilians and as many border guards – were killed and over a dozen wounded in the incident which took place at Bab-e-Dosti, or Friendship Gate, on the Pak-Afghan border.

“It was a suicide bombing. We have found the severed head on the blast site,” Frontier Corps official Colonel Haider Ali told AFP. “One FC soldier was among the victims,” he said, adding that the bomber had arrived at the border from Afghanistan.

Assistant Commissioner Ismail Ibrahim added that three civilians and two Afghan border guards were also killed 15 others – including six FC troops – were wounded in the blast. “We’ve unconfirmed reports that two Afghan security personnel were also killed,” Ibrahim told The Express Tribune. The injured were driven to the Civil Hospital in Chaman, where medics said the wounds of three FC troops were life-threatening.

About the civilian fatalities, Ibrahim said they were day labourers who worked as porters at the border crossing. Chaman is one of two major border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan, along with Torkham in Khyber Agency, and is the main land route for Nato supplies crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

Over in the earthquake-hit Awaran district, two army soldiers were killed and three wounded in a bomb attack on Wednesday. The Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), a banned insurgent group, led by Dr Allah Nazar, claimed credit for the attack that took place in Jalwar area, eight kilometres away from Mashkey Tehsil.

The insurgents remotely triggered an improvised explosive device (IED) when a military convoy escorting relief goods drove past, according to military sources. They confirmed that two soldiers were killed and three wounded in the attack.

Elsewhere in the district – which is believed to be the hotbed of Baloch insurgency – militants carried out four more attacks on the security forces in the Nok Jo, Palawar, Gishkur and Dandar areas, sources told The Express Tribune. However, no casualties were reported in these attacks.

Major General Salik, the general officer commanding (GOC), said that reinforcements were being sent to Awaran from Karachi and Quetta for the security of relief workers. He conceded that army troops were having difficulties in interacting with quake survivors – but he pledged that the “troops will try to win the hearts and minds of the Baloch people”.

Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch condemned the attack, saying that such attacks could hamper relief efforts in Awaran where according to initial estimates 25,000 families have been rendered shelter-less by the Sept 28 temblor.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2013.