QUETTA, Pakistan: Six security officials were killed in an attack in southwestern Pakistan on Friday when their convoy came under heavy firing in a mountainous area near the border with Iran.

Pakistan's restive Baluchistan province has been hit by a number of attacks on security personnel but the number of large scale incidents has decreased significantly since 2016.

The province's information minister Zahoor Ahmed Buledi told Reuters that six members of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force in charge of security in the region were killed in "heavy" firing along a mountainous stretch of road in the Kech district.

Fourteen others were wounded. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Islamist militants linked to the Taliban, al Qaeda and Islamic State have been operating in the province, which borders Iran as well as Afghanistan. It also has an indigenous ethnic Baluch insurgency fighting the central government.

Last month, three men from the separatist Baloch Liberation Army stormed the Chinese embassy in Pakistan's southern metropolis Karachi, killing four people including two policemen.

They were shot and killed by police before they could force their way in in a car packed with explosives.

Baluchistan, which has rich mineral and natural gas reserves but remains Pakistan’s poorest province, is the site of a long-running rebellion by separatists who argue the state is taking over their lands and have targeted Chinese-funded projects.

In July, a suicide bomber detonated in the middle of a crowded election rally in the province, killing 128 people including electoral candidate Siraj Raisani. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast. </s> Dera Ismial Khan, Pakistan (Reuters) - A blast at a crowded market in a town in Pakistan’s northwest killed at least 8 people on Friday and wounded 20 others, a local government official said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast in the northwestern Orakzai district.

“Eight people have been killed and over 20 are injured. We are checking on further details,” local government official Mutahir Zeb told Reuters.

The blast occurred around the same time as three attackers attempted to storm the Chinese Consulate in the southern port city of Karachi in an unrelated incident in which two police officials were killed. The Karachi attack was claimed by the ethnic insurgent Baloch Liberation Army. </s> At least six Frontier Corps personnel killed, 14 others wounded in assault claimed by Baloch Liberation Army

At least six paramilitary troops were killed on Friday when their convoy came under attack by unidentified gunmen in Balochistan province, officials said.

The incident took place in the far-flung mountainous Kech district where soldiers from the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) were on a routine patrol.

“Six FC men embraced martyrdom while 14 others were wounded in the gun attack,” said Zahoor Buledi, provincial information minister.

A senior official from the FC confirmed the attack and told AFP that a search operation has been launched in the area.

A spokesman for the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mineral-rich Balochistan province borders Afghanistan and Iran and is home to ethnic, Islamist and political insurgencies. China is investing in the area under a $54-billion project known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), upgrading infrastructure, power and transport links between its far-western Xinjiang region and Pakistan’s Gwadar port.

Thousands of paramilitary troops are deployed in troubled areas of the country to carry out security checks and to help police in maintaining law and order.

Violence in Pakistan has dropped significantly since the country’s deadliest-ever militant attack, an assault on a school in Peshawar in 2014 that killed more than 150 people, most of them children. </s> QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Attacks in Pakistan on Monday killed six members of the country's paramilitary force and two policemen, officials said.

In southwestern Baluchistan province, gunmen ambushed a convoy of paramilitary troops and wounded two in an ambush on a security convoy in the country's southwest.

Later Monday, an attack in the country's North Waziristan region left two policemen dead.

Hasil Khan, a local administrator in Awaran district of Baluchistan, said the convoy came under an attack by gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades in the district's Mashki area. The troops were on patrol when the attack happened, Khan said, adding that a search was underway for the attackers.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but blame will likely fall on Baluch separatists fighting in the region.

Islamic militants also operate in Baluchistan province, which has been the scene of low level insurgency for over a decade. The separatists demand a larger share of provincial resources or complete autonomy from Islamabad.

In North Waziristan, the attack that killed two policemen took place in the Boya area, according to Mohammad Ayaz Khan, the region's top government administrator.

He said a government official, Rehmat Hussain, and a policeman were also wounded in the attack.

Last month, government official Hameedullah Khan was killed in a similar attack in the same area. </s> Six members of Pakistan’s paramilitary force and two police officers have been killed in separate attacks in the country's southwest and northwest, officials say.

Two paramilitary troops were also injured on July 2 when gunmen ambushed their convoy with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades in the southwestern province of Balochistan, said Hasil Khan, a local administrator.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Awaran district.

Resource-rich Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, has been plagued by sectarian violence, Islamist militant attacks, and a separatist insurgency that has led to thousands of casualties since 2004.

In the North Waziristan tribal region, officials said a July 2 attack left two police officers dead.

A government official and a police officer were also wounded in the attack, according to Mohammad Ayaz Khan, the region's top government administrator.

Islamic militants had sanctuaries in North Waziristan until a 2014 Pakistani Army offensive, after which most militants escaped to Afghanistan. They continue to carry out sporadic attacks. </s> Six security officials have been killed in an attack in southwest Pakistan when their convoy came under heavy firing in a mountainous area near the border with Iran.

Pakistan's restive Balochistan province has been hit by a number of attacks on security personnel, but the number of large-scale incidents had decreased significantly since 2016.

The province's information minister Zahoor Ahmed Buledi told the Reuters news agency on Friday that six members of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force in charge of security in the region were killed in "heavy" firing along a mountainous stretch of road in the Kech district.

Fourteen others were wounded.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and the Baloch Raji Ajoie Sangar (BRAS), armed Baloch separatist groups, have both claimed responsibility for the attack, in statements emailed to Al Jazeera.

Restive province

Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, has often been at the centre of attacks by both religious armed groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban (also known as Pakistan Taliban), and armed ethnic Baloch separatists fighting for independence from Pakistan.

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Last month, three men from the separatist Baloch Liberation Army stormed the Chinese embassy in Pakistan's southern metropolis of Karachi, killing two policemen.

They were shot and killed by police before they could enter the complex with a car packed with explosives.

Despite its rich mineral and natural gas reserves, Balochistan remains Pakistan's poorest province and is the site of a long-running rebellion by separatists who argue the state is taking over their lands.

The separatists have also targeted Chinese-funded projects in the region.

In July, a suicide bomber detonated in the middle of a crowded election rally in the province, killing 128 people, including electoral candidate Siraj Raisani.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for the blast. </s> At least 128 people were killed in a suicide attack in Pakistan that targeted the convoy of a political candidate in this month’s general election, according to Agha Omar Bangulzai, the caretaker Home Minister of Balochistan province.

Nawabzada Siraj Raisani, who was campaigning for an assembly seat in the southern province of Balochistan, was killed in the bomb blast along with dozens of others, Balochistan Home Secretary Haider Ali Shikoh told CNN.

Bangulzai told CNN that more than 200 people were also injured in the explosion, which occurred in the Mastung area, close to the provincial capital Quetta. It is the deadliest terror strike in Pakistan this year.

Most of the wounded were taken to Quetta Civil Hospital, where many are recovering from burn injuries, according to Dr. Faheem, the head of the trauma unit at the hospital.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in an email. CNN cannot immediately authenticate the assertion.

The Balochistan government announced two days of mourning and ordered that the national flag fly at half-staff. Political parties in the province announced suspension of political activities in the aftermath of deadly suicide bombing.

The director of civil defense, Muhammad Aslam Tareen, told CNN that eight to 10 kilograms of explosives were used in the attack.

Abdul Majeed, 36, was among the scores of people injured. Before he was taken to the hospital, Majeed said he could hear dozens of people crying and could only see “dust and blood” at the site of the blast. He lost two relatives in the attack, he said.

Another strike in Pakistan on Friday targeted former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Akram Khan Durrani’s convoy in Bannu while it traveled from one political rally to the next.

Four people were killed and 32 others were injured in the bombing, which took place in North Waziristan, close to the border with Afghanistan. Duranni survived.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack in North Waziristan.

The violence comes the same day as former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan to face 10 years’ imprisonment on corruption-related charges.

His conviction last week dealt a blow to his party’s prospects in the election and shifted the political landscape just three weeks before the vote.

Earlier Friday, authorities in Lahore, Punjab Province, were preparing for mass protests in support of the Sharifs, who party members say have been unfairly targeted.

With each attack, fears of violence ahead of the election are rising. On Tuesday, at least 20 people died and 63 were injured in a suicide attack in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan, for which the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility. </s> (CNN) — At least 85 people have died in a suicide attack in Pakistan that targeted the convoy of a political candidate in this month’s general election, according to regional Health Minister Faiz Kakar.

Nawabzada Siraj Raisani, who was campaigning for an assembly seat in the southern province of Balochistan, was killed in the bomb blast along with dozens of others, Balochistan Home Secretary Haider Ali Shikoh told CNN.

Kakar told CNN that at least 120 were also injured in the blast, which occurred in the Mastung area, close to the provincial capital Quetta. It is the deadliest terror strike in Pakistan this year.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in an email. CNN cannot immediately authenticate the assertion.

The director of civil defense, Muhammad Aslam Tareen, told CNN that eight to 10 kilograms of explosives were used in the attack.

Another strike in Pakistan on Friday targeted former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Akram Khan Durrani’s convoy in Bannu while it traveled from one political rally to the next.

Four people were killed and 32 others were injured in the bombing, which took place in North Waziristan, close to the border with Afghanistan. Candidate Duranni survived.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack in North Waziristan.

The violence comes the same day as former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan to face 10 years’ imprisonment on corruption-related charges.

His conviction last week dealt a blow to his party’s prospects in the election and shifted the political landscape just three weeks before the vote.

Earlier Friday, authorities in Lahore, Punjab Province, were preparing for mass protests in support of the Sharifs, who party members say have been unfairly targeted.

With each attack, fears of violence ahead of the election are rising. On Tuesday, at least 20 people died and 63 were injured in a suicide attack in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan, for which the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility. </s> Islamabad, Pakistan - At least 12 people have been killed and 14 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack near the provincial police chief's office in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, police officials told Al Jazeera.

The explosion on Friday morning struck a police checkpoint near a complex that is housing the Balochistan police chief's office, local police officer Muhammad Akbar said.

At least six police officers were among those killed, Ali Mardan, a senior police officer, told Al Jazeera.

Initial reports indicated a vehicle approached the checkpoint and explosives were set off when the driver of the vehicle was stopped by the police, provincial government spokesperson Anwar ul-Haq Kakar told local television channel Geo News.

"At 8:45am (03:45 GMT), there was an old car, a Toyota Corolla ... that came here near the [police chief's] office and it was stopped by the police personnel. That is when the blast took place," he said.

"There was no exchange of fire, but it's possible that law-enforcement personnel may have fired into the air."

Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistan Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent out its spokesperson Asad Mansoor.

Altaf Hussain, local police official, said: "Some of the wounded are still in critical condition. Most are police personnel, as well as a traffic warden."

"It was a suicide attack. They came to the intersection and then blew themselves up there," said Hussain.

Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said the Inspector General's office was the likely target of the attack.

"The attack took place in the red zone, close to the IG's office as well as the State Bank of Pakistan," he said.

"Authorities are saying the IG's office could've been the target."

Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan province, has seen frequent attacks targeting government buildings and security forces, as well as civilians.

In February, two bomb disposal squad members were killed and 11 others wounded in an explosion under Quetta's Saryab bridge, local media reported.

In August last year, at least 74 people were killed in a suicide attack on the city's Civil Hospital, while another 60 were killed in an attack on a police academy two months later.

Past attacks in the province have been claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, ISIL, as well as by Baloch separatist fighters who are fighting for independence from Pakistan.

The province has also seen a number of attacks carried out by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's Al Alami faction, a group with ties to ISIL, known for attacking Shia Muslims.

Targeting CPEC

The resource-rich province is central to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $56bn trade and infrastructure project that seeks to create a major trade route from southwestern China to the Arabian Sea through the Balochistan port of Gwadar.

Security in Balochistan has been a major concern for CPEC, with separatists regularly attacking workers building road and other projects associated with the corridor.

Earlier this month, two Chinese citizens were kidnapped and killed in the province.

Pakistan has established a Special Security Division comprising 15,000 troops to secure the CPEC corridor and projects associated with it.

The Pakistani government and military have repeatedly blamed neighbours India for fomenting instability in Balochistan, although officials have presented limited evidence to back this claim.

On Thursday, Kulbhashan Yadav, an Indian national who has been convicted and sentenced to death by a military court for funding and planning attacks in Balochistan for the Indian spy agency RAW, submitted a confession and mercy petition to Pakistan's army chief, the Pakistani military said.
Six government officials are killed and 14 others are wounded in an attack in Balochistan, Pakistan. The BLA claims responsibility.