Two labourers killed, three injured in Quetta roadside IED blast

QUETTA: A roadside IED blast in the Wali Tangi area of Quetta district on Sunday claimed the lives of two laborers and left three others injured, according to police reports. The attack targeted a vehicle carrying a contractor and four laborers, who were on their way to the area for construction work on tube wells, approximately 30 kilometers from Quetta.

Police identified the incident's remote detonation as the primary cause. Senior Superintendent of Police Asif Ghafoor stated that the blast injured five individuals, including the contractor, who were subsequently transported to the Civil Hospital Quetta. Regrettably, two of the injured succumbed to their injuries. The contractor's vehicle sustained significant damage, prompting an immediate response from police and Frontier Corps personnel.

They swiftly cordoned off the area and transferred the injured to the hospital. Authorities have initiated a search operation to apprehend those responsible for the heinous act. Separately, a former Afghan army commander named Haji Hazrat Ullah, also known as Rorad Achakzai, met a grim fate in Quetta. He was shot dead by unidentified armed men while riding in a motorbike in the Killi Raisani locality, located on the outskirts of the provincial capital.

The victim, a former commander of Afghanistan's Kandahar province, had moved to Quetta in 2021 and resided in Killi Raisani ever since. The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) recently released a monthly security assessment on July 31, highlighting a sharp escalation in violence in Balochistan last month. The overall death toll in the region surged by 241%, rising from 109 cases in June to 372 in July.