QUETTA: Eight people, including six security personnel, were injured in a bomb attack on a truck convoy guarding the copper project in the Mangochar area of Kalat district on Monday.

According to officials, a convoy of 29 trucks, transporting blaster copper from the Saindak project to Karachi, was targeted on the Quetta-Karachi National Highway in Mangochar.

Unknown armed men planted an improvised explosive device in front of the Nadra office on the main highway, and when the convoy, guarded by personnel from the FC, reached the site, a powerful explosion occurred, hitting a security vehicle.

A heavy exchange of gunfire ensued and continued for some time. As a result of the blast, eight security personnel and a truck driver were injured.

“A total of six security personnel and a civilian driver have been injured in the blast,” a senior official of the Kalat administration told Dawn, adding that security personnel transferred the injured to the district hospital in Kalat.

The officials said no Chinese nationals were traveling in the convoy. Following the blast, traffic between Quetta and Kalat on the highway was suspended; however, it was later restored after security clearance.

A senior official of MRDL, the company running the Saindak copper-cum-gold project for over 20 years, confirmed the attack on the project’s convoy, saying two people were injured in the gunfire, including a truck driver who was shifted to Civil Hospital in Quetta.

Quetta-Sibi Highway attack

Another victim of overnight’s exchange of fire between security forces and armed militants, who had blocked the Quetta-Sibi Highway, died on Monday, taking the death toll from the incident to two. Three others were injured.

Farooq Kurd, a resident of Quetta, was among those injured and succumbed to his injuries

on Monday. SSP Kachhi, Muhammad Dilawar Rana, said security has been tightened and traffic, which was restored last night, is continuing as usual.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2025