Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned an attack that left nine police officers dead, warning that “the terrorists will not be able to escape from the punishment.” File Photo by T. Mughal/EPA-EFE
March 6 (UPI) — A suspected suicide bombing of a police van in southwest Pakistan on Monday left at least nine officers dead and another nine injured, according to authorities.
The attack occurred when the police van carrying officers from the Balochistan Constabulary was rammed by a motorcyclist — believed to be a suicide bomber — on a bridge in an area bordering the Sibi and Kachhi districts, according to a senior police official.
“The constabulary van was on its way back to Quetta from Sibi in Balochistan Province when an explosion occurred on the Kambri bridge in the area bordering the Sibi and Kachhi districts,” said Kachhi Senior Superintendent of Police Mahmood Notezai.
However, he stressed that the exact nature of the attack would be ascertained after investigation.
Injured officers were taken to a local hospital before being evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in Quetta, the regional capital.
An emergency had been declared at the hospital and all staff, including consultants, doctors, pharmacists and paramedics had been recalled for duty, according to the medical superintendent of Quetta’s Civil Hospital.
The Balochistan Constabulary is a division within the provincial Balochistan Police force that provides security at important events and in sensitive areas, including jails.
The oil and mineral-rich province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran is the scene of a long-running cross-border separatist insurgency by Baloch nationalists and Islamist militants.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and issued a warning to the perpetrators.
“The terrorists will not be able to escape from the punishment. We will make an example out of those who spill innocent blood,” he said.
A spike in violence in recent months has seen a spate of bomb blasts and gun battles between insurgents and security forces that have spread far beyond the province.
Monday’s attack mirrors an attack eight days ago in which at least five people were killed and 12 others injured when a motorcycle laden with explosives blew up in the Barkhan district of Balochistan.
A day earlier, two policemen were killed and one was injured after an Improvised Explosive Device in Khuzdar district detonated as their patrol vehicle passed by.
in January last year, a wave of deadly attacks in the province’s Kech and Sui districts, in Lahore in neighboring Punjab and as far away as Islamabad, the capital, left 18 people dead and dozens injured.