Suicide attack kills 5 policemen in SW Pakistan

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - At least five policemen were killed and several injured in a suicide attack in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Balochistan province on Tuesday, Pakistan army said.

A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up near a police van at Airport Road killing five policemen and injuring seven, said the army's media wing Inter-services Public Relations (ISPR).

Minutes earlier, two suspected suicide bombers attempted to attack a check post in the eastern outskirts of Quetta, but security forces killed them before they could detonate their explosive-laden vests. No troop was killed or injured in the attack, the ISPR added.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

The region has been plagued by violence for over six decades with separatists claiming it was forcibly incorporated into Pakistan at the end of British rule in 1947.

Over the course of the last decade, the province -- especially Quetta -- has faced a deadly wave of sectarian violence in which over 2,200 people have been killed.

The province is also a key route of a $46-billion megaproject, China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which aims to connect China's strategically important northwestern Xinxiang province to Balochistan’s Gawadar port through a network of roads, railways and pipelines to transport cargo, oil and gas.