QUETTA: Security forces on Sunday night foiled a terror bid at an airbase in the southwestern province of Balochistan.
According to reports, at least four suspected terrorists opened fire at a police checkpost near Samungli air force base in Quetta. As a result of crossfire, two suspects were killed while two managed to flee.
Security sources said that the area has been cordoned off and a search operation launched to search for the terrorists. The dead bodies of the suspects have been shifted to Civil Hospital, Quetta.
The airbase along with another had come under attack in 2014, wherein 11 militants were killed as they tried to storm the facility.
Balochistan —long been plagued by an insurgency and targetted killings – is reeling under a fresh wave of terrorism, as Baloch insurgents and other religious outfits have ratcheted up attacks in the restive province, targetting LEAs and minority Shias, respectively.
In May alone, the province faced at least six terror attacks, including an attack on non-native labourers working in Dera Murad Jamali.
On May 24, at least three people were killed and over a dozen injured when a mosque was targetted in Quetta’s Pashtoonabad area.
On May 14, three labourers, reportedly from Sindh province, were killed in a targeted attack. No one claimed responsibility for the attacked.
On May 13, at least four policemen were killed and several others wounded after a bomb attack targeted their vehicles while they stood guard outside a mosque in Quetta.
On May 11, militants belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) stormed a five-star hotel in Gwadar, leaving five people, including a navy soldier, dead. The operation to clear the hotel took one day. The attack was targeted at Chinese investors allegedly present at the hotel.
On May 10, two miners and three Frontier Corps personnel were killed in an attack and a subsequent landmine blast in the Khost area of Harnai district.
On May 9 –the same day a blast had rocked Lahore— three people, including a tribal elder, were killed in Qila Abdullah blast.
In April, the province fared no better either, with two major blasts targeting law enforcers and minority Hazara community separately.
On April 12, at least 20 people were killed and 48 wounded by a powerful suicide blast apparently targeting the Hazara community at a crowded fruit market in Quetta.
A faction of the Taliban claimed the attack. The group said it collaborated with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which has been behind numerous bloody attacks in Pakistan. There was no immediate confirmation from LeJ.
On the same day, two civilians were killed and 10 injured in the evening as an improvised explosive device (IED) had gone off when FC vehicle was passing through a market.
On April 18, at least 14 people were killed in an ambush on several buses travelling between Karachi and Gwadar in the remote Ormara area of Balochistan province on Thursday.
The attack which left at least 9 Pakistan Navy men dead after being identified through IDs was claimed by Baloch insurgents.
