File Photo. Asif Hassan—AFP
At least one soldier killed in Balochistan, a retired major shot dead in Karachi, and a police official injured in Peshawar in targeted spree.
At least one soldier was killed and four others wounded, including a passerby, when a bomb exploded at a paramilitary checkpoint in Balochistan, police said.
The bomb, planted close to the Frontier Corps (FC) checkpoint went off early Saturday when soldiers reached the site for daily duty in Quetta, said senior police official Abdul Waheed Khattak told AFP.
“It was an IED, which exploded the moment soldiers reached the checkpoint,” Khattak said. He added the blast killed one soldier and wounded four others including a teenager passing the site at the time of the explosion. “[The] condition of another soldier is also critical,” Khattak said.
Sajjad Ahmad, a senior official from FC, confirmed the attack and casualties.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack, along with two others in separate parts of the country. In a statement issued to media, the TTP claimed it had also targeted a retired Army official in Karachi, killing him, and a senior police official in Peshawar. The police official, a member of the Counter-Terrorism Department, is currently being treated for injuries in hospital.