Pakistan: Suicide bomb kills police officers in Balochistan

A suicide bombing killed at least 10 police officers in southwest Pakistan on Monday, a police spokesperson said.

More than a dozen others were wounded in the blast, which targeted a police truck near Sibi, a city 160 km (100 miles) east of Quetta in Balochistan province.

"The suicide bomber was riding a motorbike and hit the truck from behind," senior police official Abdul Hai Aamir told the AFP news agency.

Authorities said the police officers were returning from a weeklong cattle show where they had been providing security. Photos of the aftermath showed the truck overturned on the road with its windows shattered.

"The terrorists who are carrying out such attacks are the enemy of Pakistan," said Balochistan's Chief Minister Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo.

The "Islamic State" (IS) extremist group claimed responsibility for the attack on Monday night.

The Associated Press reported that a newly formed militant group, Tehreek-e-Jihad, also claimed responsability in a statement published hours after the suicide bombing.

Attacks on security forces in Pakistan

Pakistan has seen an increase in attacks against its police after a breakdown in peace talks between the government and the Pakistani Taliban in November.

Last month, five people died after a Taliban suicide squad attacked a police compound in Karachi.

In January, a bomb at a police mosque in Peshawar killed more than 80 officers.

"Despite different ideological, ethnic and political outlooks, (militant groups) are all franchises bound by one objective: to hit the security forces and instil a sense of fear and uncertainty in Pakistan," Imtiaz Gul, an analyst with the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad, told AFP.

Separatist tensions in Balochistan

Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is the largest and least-populous province in Pakistan.

Ethnic separatist groups including the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) have long waged a low-level insurgency against the Pakistani government.

Baloch separatists say they do not see profits from the region's vast natural resources. Locals also say billions of dollars invested by China as part of the Belt and Road Initiative have not reached them.

Last year, a BLA suicide bomber attacked a minibus near Karachi, killing three Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver.

"Terrorism in Balochistan is part of a nefarious agenda to destabilize the country," Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement on Monday.

zc/rt (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)