BALOCHISTAN: On the Kharan-Noshki highway, security forces personnel came under a two-stage assault that regional sources described as deliberate and sequenced.
In the first stage, foot soldiers were targeted by an IED an improvised explosive device, as they moved along the highway. Immediately following the blast, armed men launched a direct attack on security force vehicles in the same area, compounding the casualties before a coordinated response could be mounted.
Multiple security personnel are reported killed and wounded in the attack. Official casualty figures have not been confirmed by Pakistani military or provincial authorities at the time of publication.
The attack’s timing and sequencing an IED strike on foot personnel followed immediately by a vehicle assault, suggest a pre-planned ambush operation designed to maximize casualties and prevent an effective defensive response.
In a separate but near-simultaneous incident, Pakistani security force vehicles were targeted in an armed ambush near Bulangur in the Kech, a restive area in southern Balochistan that has seen repeated militant activity in recent months.
According to regional sources, armed men laid in wait before opening fire on the passing security force convoy. Details regarding casualties in the Kech ambush have not been officially confirmed at the time of reporting.
In Mastung’s Kurdgap area, armed men established a roadblock on the Quetta–Taftan highway the same critical corridor that the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed earlier this week to have placed under its full operational control and seized ten vehicles during the blockade.
The nature of the seized vehicles, whether commercial transport trucks, private vehicles, or mineral convoy lorries, has not been officially confirmed. The fate of the drivers and any passengers aboard the seized vehicles also remains unknown at this stage.
