At least 10 people were killed on Tuesday when a car bomb exploded outside the headquarters of a paramilitary force in Pakistan’s province of Balochistan, according to local officials, in the latest outbreak of violence in a region torn by a brutal fight between the country’s security forces and a separatist insurgency.
The blast, which also injured more than two dozen people, caused panic in the heart of Quetta, the capital of the sprawling southwestern province, as it sent plumes of smoke into the sky, according to witnesses and CCTV footage.
Bakht Muhammad Kakar, the provincial health minister, said that eight civilians and two paramilitary personnel had been killed. At least 26 wounded people were hospitalized, according to an injury list seen by The New York Times. Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti, the highest-ranking civilian official in Balochistan, said that four militants had also been killed in a shootout with security forces after the blast.
As of Tuesday afternoon in Pakistan, no group had claimed responsibility for the attack. In the past, both separatists and Islamist militants have targeted security forces and government installations in Quetta, a city of more than 1.5 million.
“There is nothing new in terms of the style of the attack, but it clearly shows how militants can hit in the heart of a large Pakistani city,” said Ifthikar Firdous, a security expert and co-founder of the Khorasan Diary, an Islamabad-based research publication specialized in regional security.
Quetta residents spoke of chaos and terror in the center of the city, which is home to banks, national television offices and the provincial parliament building. Security forces quickly cordoned off the blast site, blocking access to reporters and civilians. Ambulances ferried casualties to hospitals as families crowded outside emergency wards seeking news of relatives.
“The explosion was so powerful I thought it had gone off inside our street,” said Feroz Baraich, a trader who said he lived about 10 miles away.
Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, has long been gripped by violence. The province is rich in natural gas, gold and copper. With a long coastline on the Arabian Sea, it is also a key transit hub for the multibillion-dollar Pakistan component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and home to a deep-sea port that Beijing has been developing in recent years.
The Baloch Liberation Army and other groups have campaigned for the secession of the province and better local control over its natural resources. In March, the B.L.A. seized control of a train carrying more than 400 passengers for more than 36 hours, in one of the most audacious assaults Pakistan had faced in years. The Trump administration designated the Baloch Liberation Army as a terrorist group this summer.
The Pakistani Taliban have also posed a major security threat in recent years. The group has almost exclusively targeted security forces and prompted the Pakistani military to launch a sweeping military operation in the neighboring province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Elian Peltier is an international correspondent for The Times, covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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