A car bomb exploded near a market in Pakistan’s restive southwest, killing four people and wounding 20 others, a government official said on Monday, as violence intensifies in the region.
The attack occurred Sunday night in Qillah Abdullah, a city in Balochistan province bordering Afghanistan, said Deputy Commissioner Abdullah Riaz.
The blast damaged several shops and the outer wall of a building housing paramilitary forces, he said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. However, suspicion is likely to fall on ethnic Baloch separatists, who frequently target security forces and civilians in Balochistan and other parts of the country.
Shahid Rind, a spokesperson for the Balochistan government, condemned the bombing and said an investigation is underway.
Balochistan has been the scene of a long-running insurgency, with an array of separatist groups staging attacks, including the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army, designated as a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019.
Pakistan’s military in a statement said troops killed three Baloch insurgents in a pair of operations in Balochistan, saying the men belonged to an Indian proxy group. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a separate statement praised security forces for killing the "Indian-backed terrorists."
The military also said security forces faced off with insurgents belonging to the "Indian proxy” in multiple shootouts in the restive northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, killing nine militants. Two soldiers were also killed, it said in a statement.
Pakistan often accuses its rival India of supporting the BLA and the Pakistani Taliban, two groups that have intensified attacks in Pakistan in recent months. In one of the deadliest such attacks in March, BLA insurgents killed 33 people, mostly soldiers, during an assault on a train carrying hundreds of passengers in Balochistan.
In a rare move earlier this month, the BLA sought Indian support against Pakistan. Its appeal in a May 11 statement came amid heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, following Pakistan’s strikes on Indian military installations in retaliation for Indian missile and drone attacks, raising fears of a broader conflict.
The BLA denied Islamabad’s allegations that it operates as an Indian proxy, saying: "If we receive political, diplomatic and defense support from the world - especially from India - the Baloch nation can eliminate this terrorist state and lay the foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and independent Balochistan.”
It assured New Delhi that its fighters, if backed, would open another front against Pakistan's military near Afghanistan, where the Pakistani Taliban has strongholds.
India has not officially responded to the BLA’s overture.
Associated Press