At least four people were killed and 20 others injured in an explosion caused by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Gulistan town, Killa Abdullah district, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in southwestern Balochistan. The explosion occurred inside a market adjacent to a security forces camp around 8:30 PM.
The IED had been planted on a vehicle and detonated while most shops in the area were closed. The blast also partially damaged a wall of the nearby security camp.
The injured and deceased were taken to hospitals for treatment. Two of the wounded were transferred to a trauma center in Quetta, where they are in stable condition and receiving care.
No group has claimed responsibility for the explosion. Gulistan is located near Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, an area often affected by cross-border militant activity.
Pakistan continues to face two major insurgencies — one driven by religious extremist groups, including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), mostly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the other by ethnic Baloch separatists in Balochistan. Some presence of both TTP and Daesh has also been reported in the region.
The incident follows a recent attack by TTP on a security checkpoint in Balochistan’s Khuzdar that resulted in four deaths.
Earlier in January 2025, security forces had foiled a similar assault on a paramilitary camp in Gulistan, killing five attackers, including two suicide bombers.
