Roadside bomb kills two soldiers in quake-hit Balochistan district

• BLF claim responsibility, threaten more attacks against army
• Army vows to continue relief work even if attacks continue

Two soldiers were killed on Wednesday in a roadside bombing in Balochistan’s Awaran district near the epicentre of a devastating earthquake earlier last week.

The military said the soldiers were distributing humanitarian aid when their vehicle hit the roadside bomb in Mashkay area of the quake-hit district.

“We are there to provide relief for the local people. We will continue the relief work for our Baloch brethren even if attacks continue,” said Major General Samrez Salik, who oversees the relief operations.

The blast also left four others injured.

Responsibility:

According to a foreign news agency, separatist militant group the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We claim responsibility for Wednesday morning attack on troops near Mashkay. We will step up such attacks in coming days,” Allah Nazar Baloch, head of the BLF said.

The renewed threat by ethnic Baloch rebels adds a layer of complexity for relief efforts in the earthquake hit regions of the province.

“They (army) are directly involved in the large-scale killings of Baloch men,” alleged Nazar.

“They want to crush us and make money from the disaster relief.”

Separately, army units came under fire in five other incidents throughout the day.

The army has been facing difficulties in providing relief to the quake victims due to the security situation in Awaran. Last week, two rockets narrowly missed a military helicopter and there have been several attacks on convoys carrying aid.

On September 30, a convoy of the chief minister of Balochistan Dr Abdul Malik Baloch escaped a rocket attack in Awaran as he was on his way to a camp office set up to carry out relief efforts.

In a statement on Wednesday, the chief minister strongly condemned the bombing in Mashkay.

According to the chief minister, Awaran has had no government for the past decade, which has led to miscreants trying their best to compromise relief efforts in the area.

In a media briefing on Tuesday, Baloch admitted that there were difficulties in carrying out relief activities in the quake-hit areas of the province.

He has already made an appeal to Nazar to cooperate with aid agencies in order to provide support to earthquake survivors.