One soldier killed as female suicide bomber attacks Pakistan troops

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
3 Mar 2025 17:03

No group has claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most active militant faction in the region.

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Injured victims of suicide bombing are treated at Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010. (AP)

A female suicide bomber targeted a Pakistani paramilitary convoy in Balochistan on Monday, killing one soldier and injuring four others, officials confirmed.

"At least one Frontier Corps (FC) soldier was killed, and four others were injured when a female suicide bomber targeted an FC convoy in Kalat district," senior administration official Bilal Shabbir told AFP. Local police official Habib Babai corroborated the casualty figures.

No group has claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most active militant faction in the region, which has routinely carried out deadly attacks against security forces and non-local Pakistanis.

While female suicide bombers remain rare in Pakistan, the BLA has previously deployed women in such operations. In April 2022, a woman suicide bomber killed three Chinese academics and their Pakistani driver outside the Confucius Institute at Karachi University. The BLA later claimed responsibility for the attack.

The group has also repeatedly targeted foreign-backed energy projects, accusing outside actors of exploiting Balochistan’s vast resources while neglecting the province’s impoverished population.

Balochistan, a mineral-rich but economically deprived region bordering Afghanistan and Iran, has been the scene of long-running insurgencies driven by ethnic, sectarian, and separatist tensions. Security forces have struggled for decades to quell the violence.

Pakistan endured its deadliest year in a decade in 2024, with more than 1,600 people killed in militant attacks, including 685 security personnel, according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies. The violence has been largely confined to the country’s border regions, with incidents in major cities becoming increasingly rare.

So far in 2025, at least 81 people have been killed in attacks across Pakistan, with security forces remaining the primary target of anti-state militants, according to an AFP tally.