A Frontier Corps (FC) personnel was killed on Monday in a suicide attack carried out by a Baloch woman on a military convoy in Balochistan’s Kalat district, according to the interior ministry. The attack occurred on the national highway near the Mughalzai area of Kalat, a post from the ministry on X said.
“One soldier of the FC was killed and four others injured in the suicide attack conducted by a female suicide bomber,” said Kalat Deputy Commissioner Bilal Shabbir. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. However, in the past, suicide bombings, whether by male or female Baloch women, have been carried out by the Majeed Brigade of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
It is significant that a woman carried out the suicide attack as that can be a very dangerous signal for the Pakistani security forces. Various Baloch rebel groups have carried out some suicide attacks of which the November 2024 attack on Quetta railway station was the most devastating. But the suicide attacks have mostly been carried out by indoctrinated men devoted to the cause of Balochistan liberation from the yoke of Pakistani occupation.
Some of the suicide attacks have been carried out by Baloch women also. The first such attack was carried out by an educated Baloch woman named Shari Baloch in April 2022. Since then, more suicide attacks have been carried out by some Baloch women too. The second suicide attack was carried out by Sumaiya Qalandrani Baloch who targeted a military convoy in June 2023.
Meanwhile, the wave of enforced disappearances continued across Balochistan, with reports that Pakistani forces have forcibly disappeared 12 more individuals in the regions of Quetta, Nushki, Mashkay, and Winder between Sunday and Monday. According to local sources, two brothers, Adnan and Abrar Jamaldini, sons of Akbar Jamaldini, were abducted from the Killi Jamaldini area of Nushki on the night of February 28. Their whereabouts remain unknown, according to The Balochistan Post. In Quetta, a student was reportedly taken into custody. In addition, nine individuals were forcibly disappeared during raids in various parts of Tehsil Mashkay in Awaran district between 28 February and 1 March.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi paid homage to the slain personnel, Attaullah. He extended his sympathy and condolences to the family of the deceased.
Last week, eight people, including six security personnel, were injured in a bomb attack on a truck convoy guarding the copper project in the district’s Mangochar area. According to officials, a convoy of 29 trucks, transporting blaster copper from the Saindak project to Karachi, was targeted on the Quetta-Karachi National Highway in Mangochar.
Unknown armed men planted an improvised explosive device in front of the Nadra office on the main highway, and when the convoy, guarded by personnel from the FC, reached the site, a powerful explosion occurred, hitting a security vehicle.
On February 16, a levies personnel was killed while two others were injured as a result of an attack on a check post in the district.
Attacks by Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP) continued unabated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province also. A policeman was killed by unidentified assailants in an attack in the Khar area of Bajaur, on Sunday. The cop, identified as Ismail Khan, was returning home from a nearby market after shopping when the assailants ambushed him in the Badisamoor area, rescue officials said while quoting locals.
District Police Officer (DPO) Waqas Rafiq said the deceased cop was head of the Quick Response Force of district police.
Separately, the body of a civilian employee of a state institution was recovered from fields near Gul Kallay Daud Shah in Bannu district on Sunday. The victim’s brother told police that his brother had been recently appointed to the army.
