QUETTA: Balochistan Home Minister Mir Ziaullah Langove escaped unhurt, while at least 11 people, including six policemen, were injured in two separate attacks in the insurgency-hit Pakistani province on Friday, police said, as the nation marked its 80th Independence Day under heightened security.
The attacks came amid stringent security arrangements in Balochistan, which has been the site of a long-running insurgency, in view of Independence Day celebrations, with authorities suspending mobile data service in several districts across the province.
In the first attack, unidentified gunmen targeted security convoy of Provincial Home Minister Mir Ziaullah Langove in Guru, a mountainous area of Khad Kocha located 22 kilometers from Balochistan’s Mastung city, while he was traveling to the provincial capital of Quetta.
“Six policemen escorting the minister were injured in the attack,” Awais Khan, the local police station in-charge, told Arab News. “Mir Ziaullah Langove, Provincial Minister for Home and Tribal Affairs, remained unhurt in the attack.”
The injured policemen were later shifted to a Quetta hospital, according to Khan.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Baloch separatist militants have maintained strong presence in Khad Kocha where authorities have imposed a curfew since July 23, following repeated attacks on transporters, travelers and security forces.
Separately, a roadside bomb targeted a security forces convoy in the main market of Turbat city on Friday morning, according to Sher Zaman, the officer in charge of the Turbat police station.
“Five civilians were injured in the remotely controlled IED (improvised explosive device) blast who were sitting outside a barber shop,” he said, adding that the explosives were planted in a motorbike parked nearby.
The attacks came two days after 18 militants and three civilians were killed, while two soldiers were injured in separate incidents in the restive region, according to the Pakistani military.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least developed province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, has witnessed an uptick in attacks by separatist militants in recent years.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.
