A Frontier Corps (FC) personnel was martyred on Monday in a suicide attack by a woman bomber on a convoy in Balochistan’s Kalat district, according to an official.

A statement from the interior ministry on X said the attack occurred on the national highway near the Mughalzai area of Kalat.

“One soldier of the FC was killed and four others injured in the suicide attack conducted by a female suicide bomber,” said Kalat Deputy Commissioner Bilal Shabbir.

Shabbir said medical treatment was being provided to the injured. He added that security forces cordoned off the area and launched an investigation with the assailant’s body parts recovered from the scene for further analysis and identification.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi paid homage to the slain personnel, Attaullah. He extended his sympathy and condolences to the family of the deceased.

The ministry statement said Naqvi ordered that the best medical treatment be provided to the four injured FC personnel.

“We appreciate the FC’s eternal sacrifices for the establishment of peace in Balochistan. We salute the indelible sacrifices of FC,” the statement quoted him as saying.

Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti also strongly condemned the suicide attack and said that terrorism and cowardly acts could not affect the province’s peace and stability.

He said the sacrifices of the security forces personnel were for the establishment of peace in Balochistan and the protection of the common man.

“We salute the services and sacrifices of security forces. The blood of martyrs will not go in vain. Every person of Balochistan is indebted to the blood of martyrs,” he was quoted as saying in a statement.

The attack was claimed by a lesser-known faction of the proscribed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), known as the BLA Azad, in a message sent to journalists.

Last week, eight people, including six security personnel, were injured in a bomb attack on a truck convoy guarding the copper project in the district’s Mangochar area.

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.

On February 16, a levies personnel was martyred while two others were injured as a result of an attack on a checkpost in the district.

The involvement of women suicide bombers in attacks is rare. However, proscribed groups have previously carried out some attacks with women militants.

Three Chinese academics and their Pakistani driver were killed when a woman suicide bomber detonated her device as they were driving into the University of Confucius Institute in April 2022 in Karachi.

February saw a marginal increase in terrorist attacks but a sharp surge in civilian casualties, according to a report published by the Islamabad-based think tank, Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS).

The report tallying terrorist attacks across Pakistan in February was published after a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a military convoy in North Waziristan on Sunday, martyring two soldiers and injuring 10 others.

According to PICSS, the country witnessed 79 terrorist attacks last month, resulting in the deaths of 55 civilians and 47 security personnel, while 45 civilians and 81 security personnel were injured. Security forces, meanwhile, intensified counter-terrorism operations, eliminating 156 terrorists, injuring 20, and arresting 66, it said.

According to PICSS, Balochistan remained the most volatile province, recording 32 attacks that claimed 56 lives, including 35 civilians, 10 security personnel, and 11 militants.

The attacks also left 44 people injured, including 32 security forces personnel and 12 civilians. Terrorists also abducted two individuals during the month, the report said.

The Bashir Zeb and Azad factions of the BLA, the Balochistan Liberation Front and the United Baloch Army claimed responsibility for most of these attacks. Security forces, in response, killed 11 terrorists in Balochistan, per the report.

Additional input from Reuters and AFP.