District Police Officer (DPO) Killa Abdullah Sajid Mohmand, his guard and a civilian lost their lives in a blast near Boghra Road in Balochistan's Chaman area on Monday morning, police said.While two frontier constabulary men killed in Kurram Agrency
Police Spokesman Shazada Farhat said at least 11 other people ─ including police officials and passers-by ─ were injured in the blast which struck a vehicle carrying the police chief and two of his guards in the main bazaar.DPO Sajid Mohmand, who was critically wounded in the blast, succumbed to his injuries shortly after the blast.
Although initial reports suggested the blast was caused by an Improvised Explosive Device, police sources later said it was a suicide attack targeting the vehicle, South Punjab News reported.
Farhat said police found a badly destroyed motorcycle at site of the blast and are trying to determine whether a bomb was rigged to it.
In the moments following the explosion, an emergency was declared in hospitals and law enforcement and rescue officials rushed to the site of the attack and cordoned off the area.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar and Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti condemned the attack. Nisar sought a report probing the incident, Radio Pakistan reported.
Chaman is considered a sensitive town in Balochistan as it shares a border with Afghanistan's volatile Kandahar province.Two officials of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) were martyred and two others were injured in a blast in the Laka Tika area of Lower Kurram Agency on Monday, according to security sources.
The blast that used explosive material targeted post number two of the FC and was claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, sources added.
Last month, at least 74 people were killed and more than 200 were injured after two subsequent explosions hit a densely populated area of Kurram Agency's Parachinar city.
Parachinar, with a population of more than 50,000, has been under strict security arrangements for quite some time. Army and paramilitary personnel have set up checkpoints on all routes leading to the town and visitors and vehicles go through extensive search and identification process.
On March 31 this year, the city had suffered a similar tragedy when 23 people were killed in a car bomb blast near an Imambargah at midday. More than 70 others were wounded in the attack. Another person had died later after security forces opened fire on a crowd trying to hold a demonstration in front of the political agent’s office in protest against increasing terrorist attacks.
In January this year, 25 people were killed and 87 others suffered injuries when a bomb went off during peak business hours at a crowded vegetable market in the city. In what appeared to be a sign of growing cooperation among extremists, two banned groups had come forward to claim the deadly assault, with one describing the incident as a suicide attack.
The army had launched Operation Raddul Fasaad in February following a spate of terror attacks in the country, which claimed more than a hundred lives and left hundreds others injured.
The operation seeks to eliminate the "residual/latent threat of terrorism", consolidating the gains made in other military operations, and further ensuring the security of Pakistan's borders.
Hundreds of suspected terrorists have reportedly either been killed or arrested in raids carried out by security personnel since the start of the operation.
