22 killed in separate attacks in Pakistan, including 14 in suicide bombing at political rally of Balochistan National Party in Quetta

For more than a decade, Pakistani forces have been fighting an insurgency in Balochistan. Violence in the region surged in 2024, with 782 people killed that year.

At least 22 people were killed in three separate attacks in Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said. In Balochistan’s capital, Quetta, a suicide bomber targeted a political rally of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) in a stadium parking lot. The blast killed 11 people and injured about 40 others, according to local officials. Another attack in Balochistan, near the Iranian border, left five people dead. In a third incident, six soldiers were killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when a suicide bomber struck their base.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack in an email statement to Reuters. The BLA is the largest of several ethnic insurgent groups fighting for independence in Balochistan, a province of about 15 million people that borders Afghanistan and Iran. The group accuses the government of exploiting the province’s rich gas and mineral resources without benefiting the local population.

“So far, 44 injured people have been brought to the civil hospital,” said Dr. Wasim Baig, a hospital spokesman, in a statement to Reuters.

Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province and rich in natural resources, but it remains the country’s poorest region and ranks very low on human development indexes. The Balochistan National Party (BNP) focuses on demanding more rights and better economic opportunities for the Baloch people.

Since 2014, China has been investing heavily in the province as part of its One Belt, One Road infrastructure project. For more than a decade, Pakistani forces have been fighting an insurgency in Balochistan. Violence in the region surged in 2024, with 782 people killed that year.