News / Pakistan

Two separate gun and bomb attacks kill dozen in Pakistan

Thursday, 15 October 2020 6:44 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 15 October 2020 6:44 PM ]

Security personnel of Pakistan's Frontier Corps patrol near the newly inaugurated Badini Trade Terminal Gateway, a border crossing point between Pakistan and Afghanistan at the Pakistan's border town of Qila Saifullah in the southwestern province of Balochistan on September 16, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

At least twelve people have been killed in two separate gun and bomb attacks targeting security forces and workers across Pakistan.

In the first incident, at least six people were killed on Thursday when a convoy of oil workers came under attack by a group of heavily-armed gunmen in the restive southwestern province of Balochistan.

Local Pakistani officials confirmed that paramilitary troops and workers from the state Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL) were among those killed in the ambush on a highway in Gwadar.

No group or individual has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, however, such instances of violence are usually carried out by pro-Taliban militants.

Baloch separatist groups and militants in the province have also been engaged in a decades-long campaign against the central government.

Balochistan was rocked by a series of terrorist attacks in late 2016, raising fears about an increasing presence of armed militants in the area, including terrorists linked to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

In a second attack on Thursday, the military said in a statement that at least six soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in North Waziristan province.

Pakistan has been carrying out a major offensive against militant hideouts across the troubled northwestern tribal regions since June 2014.

Eight killed in twin attacks in Pakistan’s northwest

Eight people are killed and dozens of others wounded in twin attacks in northwestern Pakistan, security sources say.

Despite frequent offensives by the Pakistani army, acts of terror by militants continue to target security forces as well as civilians.

Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Pakistan entered into an alliance with the United States in Washington’s so-called war on terror.

Thousands more have been displaced by the wave of violence sweeping the country.

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