At least four personnel, including a junior commanding officer of the Pakistan Frontier Corps, were killed and eight injured in an IED bomb attack in the country’s restive province of Balochistan, the ISPR, the media wing of Pakistan Army, said. No group has taken responsibility for the attack so far.

The incident happened on Monday near Marget Mines, some 45 miles east of Quetta, the provincial capital. The security outpost, set up for the protection of mines, was targeted using an IED bomb, the ISPR said in a press conference on Monday. 

The security forces, thereafter, launched a massive sanitization operation in the region to clear the areas of insurgents. “Security forces are determined to neutralize their nefarious designs even at the cost of blood and lives,” the army said in the statement. 

The army further claimed that such attacks won’t be allowed to “sabotage the hard-earned peace” in Balochistan. 

For the past few months, attacks on security forces have risen in its already troubled Balochistan province. Significantly, the Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), commonly known as The Pakistan Taliban, has also stepped up their activities in the province which isn’t the traditional operation area of the group.

Baloch insurgents have long been targeting security forces, guarding mining areas, in the region.