News / Pakistan

9 killed in bombing in southwestern Pakistan

Saturday, 06 February 2016 2:29 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 06 February 2016 2:49 PM ]

Pakistani security officials stand beside the bodies of blast victims at the site of a bomb explosion targeting a security convoy in Quetta, Balochistan Province, on February 6, 2016. (AFP photo)

At least nine people were killed and over 40 others injured on Saturday in a bomb explosion targeting a vehicle transporting security forces in southwestern Pakistan.

Police authorities said the attack was carried out when a bomber riding on a bicycle blew his explosives near a car belonging to the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan Province.

The blast left seven civilians and two members of the security forces dead.

"Two of our soldiers were martyred in the bombing and 10 others were wounded," said a paramilitary spokesman whose name was not mentioned in the report.

Pro-Taliban militants in a statement claimed responsibility for the blast without releasing further details.

Pakistan has been facing security challenges since it joined an alliance with the United States in the so-called war on terror in 2001.

Back in January, five soldiers and two coast guard members were killed in separate attacks in Balochistan, while a bomber killed at least 15 people outside a polio center in Quetta.

Pakistani commuters make their way as smoke rises after a bomb explosion that targeted a security convoy in Quetta, southwestern Pakistan, on February 6, 2016. (AFP photo)

Thousands of people have been killed over the past decade as a result of a surge in violence in the country. Thousands more have been displaced by the wave of violence and militancy.

In the country’s troubled northwestern tribal regions, Islamabad has been engaged in a major offensive against militant hideouts since June 2014, when a deadly raid on the Karachi International Airport ended the government’s faltering peace talks with the pro-Taliban militants.

Pakistan’s mineral and gas-rich Balochistan Province is rife with separatist, extremist and sectarian violence and has been the scene of numerous terrorist attacks over the past years.

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