QUETTA, BALOCHISTAN: The wave of bridge bombings along the Quetta-Karachi highway continued as unidentified attackers destroyed two more link bridges with explosives, officials said.
According to sources, a link bridge on the national highway near Reki Boz in the Khadkocha area was blown up late Tuesday evening. The blast was of a severe nature, damaging the roofs of nearby houses, though no casualties were reported.
In a second incident, another link bridge was destroyed with explosives near Chotu Mal. Traffic flow on the Quetta-Karachi highway is feared to be disrupted following the two attacks.
Separately, a body was recovered near a Levies checkpoint close to Girano in Noshki. The victim, who had been shot dead, was identified by local residents as Sanaullah, son of Attaullah Jamaldini, a resident of Kili Jamaldini, Noshki.
The motive behind the killing remains unknown, though the victim had reportedly been injured in an earlier armed attack.
In a separate development, in Kharan three customs officials were taken into custody by armed men in the Dali area during a roadblock set up by the attackers the previous day.
No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction so far, though Baloch separatist armed groups are known to be active in the area.
It is worth noting that this comes just days after a large number of armed men entered Kharan city and conducted snap-checking operations at several points across the city, including Budo Bridge, Bab-e-Kharan, CPEC Road, Model School, and Sarawan Road. The checking points had been set up in the middle of the city and at multiple other locations, though the identity of the armed men and the purpose of the checking were never established.
That earlier development was followed by a breaking incident in which armed men set a police mobile on fire inside Kharan’s Red Zone, triggering an exchange of fire between security forces and the attackers.
