A powerful roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying Pakistani security forces in the country’s volatile southwest on Friday, killing two soldiers and wounding three, authorities said.
Hours later, the separatist Baluchistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack on Kohlu, a district about 180 miles east of Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan. The group was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019.
Baluchistan province has seen an increase in violence in recent times, with militant and separatist groups taking responsibility for the attacks.
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A bomb hits a vehicle in Pakistan, killing two soldiers and injuring three. (Fox News)
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A local police official, Lal Khan, said the victims had been transported to a hospital in the area. A military statement identified the two killed as a major and a captain and said they sacrificed their lives “in defense of the mother country against a threat perpetrated from without”. The military said the soldiers were carrying out an operation at the time of the attack, but did not provide further details.
Separatist groups have been behind a long-standing uprising and are fighting for Baluchistan’s independence from the central government in Islamabad. Pakistan says it has crushed the insurgency, but violence has continued along the country’s borders with Iran and Afghanistan.
