Police in Pakistan reported Monday that a female suicide bomber detonated herself near a military convoy in southwestern Balochistan province, killing at least one security personnel and injuring four others.
The bombing in the insurgency-hit Kalat district reportedly targeted a commander of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force, but he was unharmed.
A local police officer, Habibullah, confirmed the casualties, telling VOA by telephone that investigators had recovered body parts of the bomber and concluded that the perpetrator was female.
No immediate claims of responsibility for the Kalat attack were made. However, previous similar acts of violence in natural resources-rich Balochistan, including those involving female bombers, had been claimed by the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
In Pakistan, suicide bombings by women are rare. The last known female suicide attack happened in 2022 when a bomber targeted a van carrying Chinese teachers to the university campus in Karachi. The driver and three teachers were killed.
BLA-led attacks against security forces and settlers from other Pakistani provinces, particularly Punjab, have lately increased in Balochistan, which sits on the country’s border with Afghanistan and Iran.
Series of attacks
Last month, BLA insurgents ambushed a bus transporting paramilitary forces in Kalat and killed 18 of them. Just days later, a roadside bomb blast killed 11 coal miners in the city while BLA took credit for attacking a military vehicle securing a supply convoy for a mining company operated by China. Pakistani authorities reported that the convoy was passing through Kalat when it came under attack, resulting in injuries to eight security personnel.
BLA has justified its attacks on infrastructure projects funded by China, claiming that Beijing is aiding Islamabad in exploiting local resources without sharing the benefits with the impoverished Baloch residents.
Pakistan and China deny the allegations, asserting that BLA and other separatist organizations are actively engaged in campaigns aimed at hindering economic development in Balochistan.
Monday’s bombing occurred a day after an alliance of ethnic Baloch separatist groups, including BLA, resolved at a joint meeting to escalate their “war against Pakistan and China” by implementing a “blockade on all important highways of Balochistan to disrupt the logistical, economic, and military interests” of the Pakistani state.
The insurgent alliance shared the information with reporters via email but did not disclose the location or timing of the meeting. BLA is believed to be the largest and most lethal group active in Balochistan, and it has also been designated as a global terrorist organization by the United States.
