Pakistani forces yesterday expanded their search for the perpetrators behind multiple attacks that killed six troops and wounded 17 civilians in a restive southwestern province the previous day.
The top government official in Baluchistan Province, Abdul Aziz Uqaili, said there were a total of nine attacks in the province on Sunday.
No civilians were killed in the attacks, he wrote on Twitter.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif condemned the violence in Baluchistan.
Earlier, the military in a statement said five soldiers, including an army captain, were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near a security forces’ vehicle during a clearance operation in Kahan, a remote area in Baluchistan bordering Afghanistan.
No militant group has claimed responsibility for the bombing.
The sixth soldier was killed in a shootout with the Pakistani Taliban in the Sambaza area of Zhob District, said Azfar Mohesar, a senior police official.
A militant was also killed in the shootout, he said.
In the provincial capital, Quetta, 12 people were wounded when assailants threw a hand grenade in a bazaar near a residential area, Mohesar added.
Elsewhere in Baluchistan, five people were wounded in attacks in the towns of Kalat, Khuzdar and Hub.
In other news, the US embassy in Pakistan has warned of a possible attack against Americans at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad “sometime during the holidays.”
The embassy in a statement on its Web site said all American staff are barred from visiting the hotel.
The statement came two days after Islamabad had its first suicide bombing in eight years, which killed a policeman and the two attackers.
“As Islamabad has been placed on a red alert citing security concerns while banning all public gatherings, the embassy is urging all mission personnel to refrain from non-essential, unofficial travel in Islamabad throughout the holiday season,” the statement said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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