Authorities said improvised explosive devices hit vehicles carrying coal miners to the southwest of the country.
At least 10 people have been killed and others have been injured after a bomb crashed into a vehicle carrying workers in southwestern Pakistan.
Local officials said an improvised explosive device (IED) hit a truck on Friday while driving in the Harnai area of Balochistan.
Security forces have fought decades of rebellion by poor Balochistan separatist groups, and over the past three years, violence in border regions has skyrocketed.
“Ten miners have been killed in the attack in Harnai district,” government official Shahzad Zahri told AFP news agency.
Authorities said the vehicles carry coal miners and most of the casualties came from Swat Valley and other regions in the country’s northwest.
“An improvised explosive device was planted on the roadside, which exploded when the miners arrived at the scene,” a paramilitary official told Reuters. Officials who refused to be identified added that it could be a remotely operated device.
Local government civil servant Salem Tareen also told AFP the explosion was caused by the IED, telling the victims were on their way to the market when the bomb hit.
Hazrat Wali Aga, the deputy director of the area, told Reuters that 17 miners were in trucks when the bomb was released.
Several people were injured and taken to a local hospital. Doctors at the facility told Reuters that two of the injured were in a critical state.
Harnai is more than 160 km (100 miles) from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan.
In a statement, Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif reaffirmed his “commitment to actively tackle the threat of terrorism from the country.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
However, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) is the most active group in the region, often carrying out fatal attacks on security forces or Pakistanis from other states.
The group also targets energy projects that involve foreign funding, accusing outsiders of exploiting resource-rich areas while excluding residents of Pakistan’s poorest areas.
Earlier this month, vehicles carrying troops to a town in Balochistan opened fire at 70 to 80 assailants blocking the road.
Another attack in January saw at least six people, including Pakistani paramilitaries, died in the bombing and dozens were injured.
Both attacks were alleged by the BLA.
Last year, analysts said in one of the region’s most deadly attacks, the BLA separatist fighters killed at least 39 people in “cooperative” attacks targeting ethnic Punjavis. I did.
Since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021, violence has skyrocketed in Pakistan’s border regions.
Pakistan accused the Taliban government of not defeating fighters who launched attacks from Afghan soil.
Last year was the most deadly thing for Pakistan in a decade, with attacks that included at least 1,500 police or 685 members of security forces, according to the Center for Research and Security Research, an Islamabad-based analytics group. It has increased sharply.
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