1 killed and 10 wounded in an overnight grenade attack outside a hotel in southwest Pakistan
Officials say insurgents in an overnight attack threw a grenade at people sitting in front of a hotel in the restive southwest Pakistan, killing one person and wounding 10 more
QUETTA, Pakistan -- Insurgents in an overnight attack threw a grenade at people sitting in front of a hotel in the restive southwest Pakistan and killed at least one person while wounding 10 more, police and hospital officials said Thursday.
The attack was the third in as many days in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, as people celebrated the country's independence day.
The separatist Baluch Liberation Army (BLA) group claimed responsibility for all the attacks, including the latest one, which came days after the group warned people not to celebrate the holiday on Wednesday, marking the Aug. 14, 1947, date of Pakistan’s independence from British colonial rule.
Arbab Kamran, a spokesperson at a hospital, said the facility received 10 wounded and one dead following the attack.
BLA and other small separatist groups have been behind a long-running insurgency for Baluchistan’s independence from the central government in Islamabad. Pakistan says it has quelled the insurgency, yet violence has continued along the country’s southwest borders with Iran and Afghanistan.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks in recent years, predominantly in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where security forces on Thursday killed seven militants in a raid on their hideout in the Kurram district, the military said.
In a statement, it said five insurgents were also wounded in the exchange of fire.