Woman suicide bomber targets FC convoy in Kalat, one martyred

QUETTA: A woman suicide bomber targeted a convoy of Pakistani paramilitary troops, FC, in Kalat district of Balochistan on Monday, martyring at least one soldier and injuring four others, officials said.

“At least one Frontier Corps (FC) soldier was killed, and four others were injured when a female suicide bomber targeted an FC convoy in Kalat district,” a senior administration official Bilal Shabbir told AFP.

Habib Babai, a local police official, also confirmed the toll to AFP.

No group has claimed the attack.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the most active group in the region and often carries out deadly attacks against security forces or Pakistanis from other provinces.

Also read: Two suicide bombers among nine terrorists killed in Bajaur: ISPR

Women suicide bombers are rare in Pakistan. However, the BLA has previously carried out attacks with women militants.

Three Chinese academics and their Pakistani driver were killed when a woman suicide bomber detonated her device as they were driving into the University of Confucius Institute in April 2022 in Karachi, in the south. The BLA claimed responsibility for that attack.

The group has also targeted energy projects with foreign financing — most notably from China — accusing outsiders of exploiting the resource-rich region while excluding residents in the poorest part of Pakistan.

Security forces have been battling sectarian, ethnic and separatist violence for decades in impoverished but mineral-rich Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

Last year was the deadliest in a decade for Pakistan, with a surge in attacks that killed more than 1,600 people, including 685 members of the police or security forces, according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.

The violence is largely limited to the country’s border regions with Afghanistan, with attacks in major cities increasingly rare.

At least 81 people have been killed in attacks in Pakistan this year, according to an AFP tally — the majority security forces targeted by anti-state militants.