At least five Pakistani soldiers, including a captain, were killed on Monday when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Kech district of Balochistan, military officials said.
The attack took place in the Mand area near Shand, where an improvised explosive device (IED) hit a convoy of the 125 Wing of Pakistani forces.
Those killed were identified as Captain Waqar Kakar, Naik Junaid, Naik Ismat, Lance Naik Khan Muhammad and Sepoy Zahoor Ahmed. Officials said the death toll could rise as some of the injured remain in critical condition.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the latest attack. However, Baloch armed groups have frequently used IEDs against military convoys in the region and have stepped up such assaults in recent weeks.
Surge in IED attacks
The Mand blast follows a string of high-casualty IED attacks claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
The group said it killed nine soldiers in a convoy bombing in Zamuran on 7 September and seven more in a similar attack in the same area on 2 September. On 9 September, the BLA claimed responsibility for an explosion in Tump’s Nazarabad area that it said killed seven soldiers.
The group also claimed an IED strike in Panjgur’s Parom area on 28 August, where it said six personnel were killed, and another in Kalat’s Sheikhri area on 10 September that reportedly killed four.
The Baloch Liberation Army’s (BLA) official media outlet, Hakkal, released videos of several of these operations last week.