A suicide attack in southwest Pakistan claimed the lives of nine security officers and injured at least thirteen others.
After policing a festival in Balochistan province, the officers were returning to the provincial capital of Quetta when the explosion occurred.
Images show a police truck crushed and inverted, with blood stains on the ground.
This is the second assault on security forces in Balochistan within 24 hours. No organization has taken responsibility.
Sami Agha, the deputy police commissioner for the Kachhi district, confirmed that it was a suicide attack.
According to Reuters, the assailant crashed a motorcycle into the truck.
The government of Balochistan has condemned the attack and announced that an investigation is underway.
The area has been cordoned off and a bomb disposal team is on-site to acquire evidence, authorities say.
Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, the Chief Minister of Balochistan, stated, “All such plots against harmony in the province will fail with public support.”
The assault on Monday is the latest in a string of attacks targeting security personnel across Pakistan.
In a bomb attack on a vehicle in Gwadar, a port city in the province, one security official was slain and eight others were injured on Sunday. Balochistan Liberation Front, a banned militant organization, has claimed responsibility.
On January 30, an explosive went off at a police mosque in the city of Peshawar in Pakistan’s northwest, killing more than 80 officers.
Uncertainty surrounds the latest incident, but separatists in the Balochistan region have been battling the government for decades. The Pakistani Taliban have previously claimed responsibility for several similar attacks.
Balochistan is the lowest province in Pakistan and shares a porous, expansive border with Afghanistan and Iran.
