QUETTA: Just a couple of days after the Kech attack that claimed the lives of 10 soldiers, three Levies Force personnel along with a Bugti clan elder were martyred and eight others injured in twin bomb blasts on his agricultural land in the Sui area of Dera Bugti on Friday.

Security officials said improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted in a tube-well room on his agricultural land in the Tali Mat area of Sui Tehsil were detonated by remote control, while another remote-controlled bomb found in the same area was defused by the personnel of Frontier Constabulary.

No one claimed the responsibility of the explosions till late hours of the evening.

However, official sources said an incident of firing around the same solar tube-well room was reported on Thursday night. To assess the losses, they said, the tribal elder, peace activist and Senator Mir Sarfaraz Bugti’s cousin, Sain Bakhsh, along with law enforcers came close to the room on Friday when the blasts took place one after another.

The first explosion left some people wounded and as soon as more people gathered inside the room to shift the injured to hospital, another blast took place, the official sources explained.

The second blast claimed three lives and left nine others injured including four Levies Force personnel. Later the victims were moved to the Sui Hospital, where Sain Bakhsh died during treatment.

“Four people lost their lives in the blasts and eight others injured,” an official of the Sui administration said, adding that the solar penal of the tub-wall was badly damaged in the last night attack, followed by the twin blasts.

The victims were identified as Levies personnel Khairullah, Fato Khan, Din Mohammad and Sain Bakhsh, while the injured include Sarkar Khan, Shoukat Jalaf, Nawab Din, Mohammad Hanif, Imam Din, Bakhsho Jhan and Washo Khan. Another injured remained unidentified, as hospital officials described the condition of at least four injured as critical.

Sui Naib Tehsildar Bahot Khan Bugti said another IED was spotted in the same area and FC personnel managed to neutralize it before yet another blast.

While authorities had started investigating the incident, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) Senator Bugti who is also former home minister believed the banned Baloch Republican Army (BRA) was behind the deadly attack.

“It is worst terrorism,” Senator Bugti said, complaining that both federal and provincial governments had failed to protect lives and property of people, with the result that people were compelled to ‘take measures’ for their protection.

Earlier on Thursday, a Levies Force official was martyred in a gun attack on a check-post in the border town of Chaman only a few days after 10 soldiers had embraced martyrdom in an attack on a check-post in Kech district.

Officials said the Levies personnel had signalled the suspects to stop when the latter opened fire before speeding away. The wounded security official, Mohammad Naeem Ashaizai, was later rushed to hospital where he died during treatment.

In Kech district, terrorists fired at the check-post late Tuesday night, according to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing. “During the intense exchange of fire, one terrorist was killed and several injured. While repulsing terrorists ‘fire raid’, 10 soldiers embraced Shahadat. Three terrorists have been apprehended in a follow-up clearance operation, which is still in progress to hunt down perpetrators of the incident,” it had said.

“Armed Forces are determined to eliminate terrorists from our soil no matter what the cost,” the ISPR had stated.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2022