At least 10 paramilitary troops were killed and 12 others injured in a suicide blast in southwestern Pakistan on Monday as the country battles with a recent surge in violent attacks.
"At least 10 soldiers of the paramilitary Balochistan Levies Force were killed in a blast," Ijaz Ahmad, a spokesperson for the local police told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).
The bomber riding on a motorcycle rammed into a police truck in Pakistan's restive southwest, authorities said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, which took place on a bridge in the district of Sibi in Baluchistan province, but Baluch separatists and local militants have been blamed for previous such attacks.
Mahmood Notenzai, a local police chief, said the officers were on a routine patrol when the attack happened, initially killing nine.
The casualties were taken to a nearby hospital, where one of the critically wounded officers later died, he added. Sibi is about 150 kilometers (90 miles) east of Quetta, the provincial capital.
Notenzai said the troops who came under attack were deployed last week to Sibi, where an annual cultural festival was held amid tight security. An army helicopter was sent to evacuate the seriously wounded to a hospital in Quetta, where better health facilities are available.
Last year, a suicide bomber from the Daesh terrorist group targeted President Arif Alvi's security convoy when he attended the Sibi festival.
Alvi was far away from the site of the bombing, which killed five troops. Daesh militants later claimed responsibility for that attack.
More than 100 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a mosque in northwestern Pakistan's Peshawar last on Jan. 30.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif condemned the attack. In a statement, he expressed his condolences to the families of those killed and ordered health officials to provide the best medical care for the wounded policemen.
He said the attack was part of nefarious enemy plans to destabilize Pakistan and vowed to defeat terrorism.
Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo, the top elected official in Baluchistan, also denounced the bombing.
"The terrorists who are carrying out such attacks are the enemy of Pakistan," he said, adding that they will not shake the resolve of the country's police.
Baluchistan has long struggled with a low-level insurgency by the Baluchistan Liberation Army and other small separatist groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad.
Authorities claim to have quelled the insurgency but violence has persisted. The province has also seen attacks by militants from both the Pakistani Taliban and the Daesh terrorist group.
