Table of Contents
According to senior police official Abdul Hai Aamir, the suicide bomber struck the truck from behind while riding a motorcycle. About 120 kilometers (75 miles) southeast of Quetta in Balochistan, the incident happened at Dadar, the district’s largest town.
Police were returning from a week-long cattle exhibition where they had been providing security, according to Mehmood Notezai, police chief for the Kachhi area. It has been 24 hours since the previous attack on Balochistan’s security personnel. It has not been assigned to any specific group.
The Balochistani administration denounced the assault and announced that an investigation was ongoing. A bomb disposal team is on the scene to gather evidence, and the area has been blocked off, according to the authorities.
Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, the chief minister of Balochistan, declared: “Any such plots against provincial peace will be put down with the help of the people.” The attack, according to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was a part of “nefarious aims to sow instability in the country.” He denounced the attack.
String of Incidents in Pakistan
The assault on Monday is the most recent in a string of incidents in Pakistan that target security personnel. In a bombing attack on a truck on Sunday in the port city of Gwadar, Pakistan, one security official was killed and eight others were hurt. A outlawed militant organization, the separatist Balochistan Liberation Front, has taken credit.
More than 80 police personnel were killed on January 30 in a bombing at a mosque for law enforcement in Peshawar, Pakistan. At least five people were killed and 14 more were injured by a bombing in Barkhan, Balochistan, last month. An explosion in a passenger train in the province’s Bolan area resulted in at least 13 injuries in January.
Although it is unknown who is responsible for the most recent event, separatists in the Balochistan province have been at war with the government for decades. A number of earlier attacks of this nature have also been blamed on the Pakistani Taliban.
Why are these assaults taking place?
The mining and energy projects in the area have incensed Baloch separatists. They claim that because the majority of new jobs have gone to outsiders while locals, who are already struggling with extreme poverty, are being forced off their property, there are no benefits for them.
Balochistan, the nation’s poorest region, with a long, porous border with Iran and Afghanistan. There are several natural resources in Balochistan. With Quetta as its capital, it is Pakistan’s biggest but poorest province. A long-running insurgency started when a young Pakistan conquered the Baloch state on March 27, 1948 (known as Black Day by the Baloch people).
Over the years, thousands of individuals have vanished in Balochistan at the same time as a harsh crackdown spearheaded by the military, frequently bringing international attention. Global media outlets have stated that hundreds of dead of suspected armed separatists and political activists have been discovered in the unrest-plagued region, pointing to illegal killings by Pakistani security forces.
The insurgency is fueled by resource exploitation and tyranny, but Pakistan, which is in denial, accuses India and Iran of being responsible, a claim that both countries adamantly deny.
The BLA is the most well-known organization battling for Balochistan’s independence. The 30-year-old suicide bomber who carried out the attack on Tuesday, Shari Baloch, had joined the “special self-sacrifice squad” of the BLA’s Majeed Brigade two years earlier.
Professor Naela Quadri Baloch, a prominent figure in the Balochistan freedom struggle and an exile in Canada, has claimed that the GBE—or Government of Balochistan in Exile—has been founded.
China : A Significant Player in Balochistan
Balochistan’s copper, gold, gas, and coal reserves had long piqued China’s interest. China unveiled CPEC in 2015, an infrastructural network connecting the western Chinese province of Xinjiang to the port city of Gwadar in Balochistan. Both the restive provinces of Balochistan in Pakistan and Xinjiang in China have experienced military crackdowns by their respective national administrations.
Several CPEC projects are being worked on in Pakistan by tens of thousands of Chinese workers, many of whom are employed in Balochistan, where separatists contend that Islamabad is abusing the region’s resources in order to support Beijing’s rise to power. Indian opposition to CPEC has also been raised.
Baloch separatists attacked Pakistan’s Stock Exchange, where the Chinese have significant stakes, earlier in 2020. This came after a 2018 attack on the Karachi Chinese consulate.