Balochistan unrest: FC official dies in roadside blast near Mach

Vehicle carrying security personnel hit IED while clearing a route.

QUETTA:

A roadside explosion left a member of the Frontier Corps dead and another injured on Saturday when their vehicle was travelling through an area about 25 kilometres south of Mach Town in the Bolan district.

According to a spokesperson for FC, security personnel were clearing the area when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device (IED).

Two soldiers onboard sustained serious wounds. More troops reached the crime scene and shifted the injured to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Quetta, about 90 kilometres away from the provincial capital.

The injured were identified as Azmat Ali and Akbar. “One of the men succumbed to his injuries on arrival at the hospital,” the spokesperson said.

Security forces have started a search in the area. Bolan is a sensitive and insurgency-stricken region in Balochistan where the banned Baloch Republican Army (BRA) and Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) often target security forces and as well as railway tracks, power pylons and gas pipelines.

While there have been no claims of responsibility for the latest attack, FC officials suspect Baloch militants of involvement in the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2014.