Balochistan insurgency: DSP among eight wounded in bombings

Police van attacked in Nasirabad and FC vehicle targeted in Chaman.

QUETTA:

A senior police officer and his two guards were wounded when a police van was attacked with a roadside bomb near Mir Hassan area of Nasirabad district on Tuesday. In other incidents of violence, five people, including a paramilitary soldier, were wounded in a bomb blast in the border town of Chaman.

Suspected militants remotely detonated a roadside bomb when a vehicle carrying Abdul Ghaffar Selachi, the deputy superintendent police (DSP) Chattar, and his two guards, drove past, according to Naseerabad police. “DSP Selachi was en route to Chattar from Dera Murad Jamali and he was attacked near Goth Ghulam Muhammad,” a police officer told The Express Tribune.



The explosion damaged the vehicle, leaving DSP Selachi and his guards wounded. After the blast, gunmen also opened fire on the police vehicle. Reinforcement was rushed to the spot immediately and engaged the attackers in a firefight. “The exchange of fire continued for a couple of minutes,” an official told The Express Tribune over the phone.

The injured guards – identified as Abbas Hussain and Abdul Razzaq – and DSP Selachi are said to be in stable condition. However, the latter has been shifted to Quetta for treatment.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Mir Hassan is one of the most sensitive areas in Nasirabad region; several police officials were kidnapped by Baloch militants here a few years ago.



Separately, a bomb went off near Kandahari Bazaar on Mall Road, Chaman, on Tuesday, injuring five people, including a soldier of the paramilitary Frontier Corps. This was the second bomb blast in Chaman over the last 24 hours.

“The explosive device was strapped to a motorcycle parked at the roadside. Suspected miscreants remotely triggered the device as an FC vehicle drove through the area,” SHO Chaman Muhammad Ashraf told The Express Tribune.

Four passersby and an FC soldier were wounded in the blast. They were shifted to Civil Hospital Chaman where medics said one the injured was in critical condition. The device, according to the Bomb Disposal Squad, weighed more than two kilos.

Kandahari Bazaar is one of the more crowded areas in Chaman, the site of hundreds of shops. Two people were injured on Monday when a roadside bomb went off in Chaman. No group has claimed responsibility for both bombings.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2014.