Army vehicle blown up in Quetta

The incident happened near the town of Sui, about 350 kilometers southeast of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan.

An army vehicle hit a landmine on a dirt road in a volatile tribal region in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, injuring two soldiers, a senior government official said.

HT Image

The incident happened near the town of Sui, about 350 kilometers southeast of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, said Abdul Samad Lasi, the region's top government official.

He said the blast badly damaged the vehicle and the injured had been transported to an area hospital.

Although no one immediately claimed responsibility, Lasi blamed supporters of a renegade tribal elder for the attack, adding they were doing such things to press demands for an increase in royalties for resources extracted in their territories.

He said tribesmen often attack gas facilities with rockets and plant land mines in an effort to restrict movement of security forces, who have been deployed to guard key gas fields and other facilities in the rugged region.

The increasing violence in Balochistan has raised fears of a repeat of an uprising that rocked the province in the 1970s, when thousands died in a large-scale military operation against rebellious tribesmen.