Armed fighters targeted convoys of commercial trucks in separate attacks in Kalat and Chagai on Monday and Tuesday, leaving 10 vehicles damaged or disabled amid continuing attacks on trade routes across Balochistan.
Six trucks were damaged when armed fighters opened fire on a commercial convoy travelling along the main highway in Kalat on Tuesday, according to local sources.
The sources said the attackers targeted only the vehicles and that no casualties were reported.
A convoy of commercial vehicles was separately attacked near the gas plant at Chehatar in Chagai on Monday.
Armed fighters intercepted four vehicles travelling with the convoy and disabled them by opening fire, according to sources from the area.
The vehicles were travelling as part of a larger commercial convoy accompanied by Pakistani forces when they were targeted.
The latest attacks follow a series of blockades, seizures and armed assaults on commercial traffic along the Quetta-Taftan highway and other major routes in Balochistan.
On Sunday, commercial vehicles and Pakistani forces escorting them were attacked at Charsar in the Dalbandin area of Chagai. The deaths of three Pakistani forces personnel in that attack were later confirmed.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the Charsar attack.
In a detailed weekly statement issued on Sunday, the BLA said its fighters had targeted 16 commercial vehicles at 11 locations between 16 and 21 August as part of what it described as an “economic blockade”.
Those operations included the seizure and targeting of commercial vehicles at Charsar, Nokchah and Jojki in Chagai, Zarin Jungle in Noshki and Hurmagay in Washuk.
The group said the blockade was directed against what it described as the “plundering of Balochistan’s natural resources”, “colonial exploitative projects” and the movement of Pakistani forces.
BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch said blockades along Balochistan’s main commercial routes would be expanded and that vehicles and projects protecting what the group described as the Pakistani military’s economic interests would continue to be targeted.
No group had claimed responsibility for the latest attacks in Kalat and Chagai at the time of publication.