Grenade attack at bus station in Pakistan kills 1, wounds 2

QUETTA: FEB. 9 – Assailants threw a hand grenade at a bus station in the volatile southwest Pakistan on Tuesday killing a passerby and wounding two others, police said in a sign of increasing violence in the region.

“The attack happened in Dera Murad Jamali a town in Baluchistan province,” said Aziz Baloch an area police official.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack. It came hours after Prime Minister Imran Khan visited another region in the province to assure his support for troops who came under attack in the Naushki and Panjgur districts, last Wednesday.

Nine soldiers and 20 assailants were killed in those twin attacks and subsequent clearing operations. The Baluchistan Liberation Army, a group designated terrorist by the US in 2019 had claimed responsibility.

Baluchistan has witnessed a low-level insurgency by small groups who demand independence from the central government in Islamabad. Although authorities say they have quelled the insurgency, violence in province has persisted.

-AP