Balochistan Timeline - 2008

January 1	A truck loaded with coal was on its way to Loralai when it struck a landmine in Chamalang area, killing the driver and injuring another person. A blast occurred in the Bakhtairabad area after a vehicle of the Frontier Corps hit a landmine, injuring three soldiers. Rockets were fired on a security forces’ checkpoint in Kohlu district’s Kahan area. Power supply was suspended in several areas of Hub after a pylon of a high-power transmission line was blown up.
January 3	Two suspected terrorists were killed in an exchange of fire with the security forces (SFs) in the Kan-Mehtarzai area of Muslim Bagh, some 160km north of provincial capital Quetta. Sources said the encounter ensued after the SF personnel signaled a vehicle going towards Dera Ismail Khan in the NWFP to stop, but the suspects attempted to speed away. "They were religious extremists," an unnamed security official said, adding that they might be suicide bombers. Five people were wounded in a bomb attack on a bus stop in the industrial town of Hub. According to police, a bicycle fitted with explosives and parked at the bus stop on the main Quetta-Karachi national highway exploded when a police van reached the location. Three policemen and their driver were injured when their vehicle hit a remote-controlled explosive device near the Rawalpindi Interchange of the Indus Highway in Kohat.
January 4	Two personnel of the Sindh Rangers were injured when a landmine exploded in the Fat Feeder area of Sui. According to sources, the landmine was planted to blow up a vehicle of the Rangers, but it exploded after the vehicle had passed.
January 5	One Frontier Corps soldier died and two other sustained injuries when unidentified miscreants ambushed them in the Spinny Road area of Quetta, capital of Balochistan.
January 7	Raz Mohammad and Tehlel Khan, employed at a coal mine in the Bolan district, were killed and five persons wounded when one of the men stepped on a landmine as they were returning home. Six security force personnel were injured in a landmine explosion in Sibi district when their vehicle hit a landmine. No group has claimed responsibility for either of the blasts.
January 9	One person was killed and two others sustained injuries in a landmine explosion in the coalmining area of Marget near Mach.
January 10	Six people were injured after they tried to prevent an attack on a barber’s shop in the Essa Nagri area of Quetta, capital of Balochistan province. According to police, a group of people tried to capture the assailant but he attacked with a hand-grenade and opened fire, injuring six of them. The man later escaped in the ensuing confusion.
January 13	Two persons were injured when an unidentified man lobbed a grenade into a bakery in Mastung. Insurgents blew up a railway tack linking the provincial capital Quetta with Iran.
January 14	A bomb blast occurred in the industrial town of Hub. However, no loss of life or injuries was reported. The Balochistan Inspector General of Police, Saud Gohar, said that security agencies have arrested three suspected terrorists in Nushki for their alleged involvement in the killing of security force personnel and in subversive activities. He said during a press conference in the provincial capital Quetta that terrorism and subversive activities increased in Balochistan by 19 per cent during 2007. About 186 people were killed and 445 injured in 540 incidents of terrorism and sabotage. He said that police had recovered 1,855 kilograms of drugs, over 1,000 weapons and 18 kilograms of explosives during the year.
January 16	A vehicle of the security forces was damaged in a landmine explosion in the Sangsilla area of the Dera Bugti district. However, no loss of life or injuries was reported.
January 18	Two Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militants escaped from a sub-jail located inside the headquarters of the Anti-Terrorist Force (ATF) in the Quetta cantonment area. Usman Saifullah and Shafiqur Rehman were tried by an Anti-Terrorism Court in several cases of sectarian killings. The court had sentenced Usman to death for sectarian attacks and Shafiq to life imprisonment in another case. Police said Usman had masterminded numerous sectarian killings and attacks on imambargah (congregation hall for Shia rituals) in Quetta and he had been arrested from Karachi in June 2006. Shafiq was arrested from Mastung in Balochistan in 2007. After the escape, police detained 13 jail and ATF personnel who had been on duty.
January 20	Three oil tankers and a container carrying fuel and goods for the allied forces in southern Afghanistan were blown up in the border town of Chaman and the Sranan area of Qila Abdullah district. Police managed to save another oil tanker, defusing a bomb strapped to it.
January 21	A soldier was killed and six others sustained injuries in two landmine explosions in the Pat Denari area and Pir Koh on the Sindh-Balochistan border. A convoy of the Sindh Rangers was passing through Pat Denari when one of the mines exploded, injuring three soldiers. The second mine exploded near the Pir Koh gas field in which a Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle was destroyed. Four FC personnel were injured in the incident.
January 25	A landmine blast at Dera Bugti killed a trooper and injured two others. Police said a vehicle of the security forces could have hit the landmine during patrolling. One trooper, Shafi Muhammad, was killed and two others, Shahid and Muhammad, were injured. A gas pipeline was blown up by unidentified persons in Sui, disrupting gas supply to parts of the Punjab and Sindh. Four suspects were arrested after the explosion and shifted them to an unknown place for interrogation. In Baloch Colony, some unidentified miscreants blew up the main gas pipeline, which caused the termination of gas supply to Punjab and Sindh. The explosion damaged three feet of the pipeline. A blast in Hub destroyed an electricity pylon causing power outage in the city and surrounding areas.
January 29	A child was killed while two security force personnel and a civilian were wounded on when landmines exploded in the Pirkoh and Kahan areas of Dera Bugti and Kohlu districts.
January 30	Insurgents blew up four power pylons due to which supply of electricity to Sui and Dera Bugti has been suspended. According to The Post, unidentified miscreants blew up a high transmission line of 33 KV in the area of Mazar Goth.
January 31	Six people sustained injuries when a bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded in Quetta, capital of Balochistan. The cycle was parked outside the offices of the District Coordination Office and Anti-Terrorist Court on the Anscomb Road. Two power pylons were blown up in the Maiwant area of Kohlu district, suspending power supply to the adjoining areas.
February 3	A suspected militant was killed by the troops in an operation in the Khal Gari area of Sui Tehsil (administrative unit) in the Dera Bugti district. The Security Forces (SFs) were fired upon when they launched the operation on a tip-off about the presence of militants and their hideouts in the area. "An armed man was killed in the exchange of fire," said an unnamed senior official. The SFs neutralized the hideout and recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition, including rocket-launchers, rockets, anti-aircraft guns and thousands of bullets. An assistant sub-inspector and a constable were injured when armed men opened fire on a police vehicle when it was passing through the Joint Road late. "Yes, two police personnel received bullet injuries in the firing," Rehmatullah Niazi, the DIG Operations, said, adding that some bullets fired also hit the car of a journalist. A huge pylon of the high power transmission line near Hub was blown up, suspending electricity supply to a vast area. According to sources, the explosive device was planted around the 500KV transmission line at the northern bypass. "Power supply was suspended to the area adjoining Hub in Sindh province," Abdullah Afridi, SHO Hub police station said. Two powerful explosions were reported from Dera Allahyar. Armed men kidnapped a driver of the irrigation department from the Pat Feeder area. The Frontier Corps also claimed recovering a large quantity of arms and ammunition from the Gul Kach area of Zhob, including grenades, mortar bombs, AK-47 rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
February 4	One person was killed and three others sustained injuries when the tractor trolley they were aboard hit a landmine near RD-238 in the Pat Feeder area near Sui. Two pylons of the 220 KV transmission line near Dear Allahyar were blown up. Beebarg Baloch, a spokesman for the BLA, claimed that the BLA had attacked SFs in Kahan and Siha Giri area of Kohlu district and that SFs had suffered heavy losses. He claimed that the BLA was also involved in attacking a police vehicle in Quetta and blowing up power pylons in Dera Allahyar and Hub. However, official sources denied that SFs had come under any attack.
February 5	A suspected suicide bomber was killed in Quetta when the explosives he was carrying detonated accidentally. The blast, which occurred at Sabzal Road, also injured two pedestrians.
February 7	Three persons were killed and 12 others sustained injuries in a bomb blast that occurred at a bus stand in the Dera Murad Jamali town. Two people died instantly and one, Ghanwar Bugti, died in the hospital. Police sources said Bugti was believed to have been planting the bomb when it exploded. Meanwhile, the Baloch Republican Army claimed responsibility for the blast in a telephone call to local journalists.
February 11	Six security force (SF) personnel were injured in an explosion near Dera Bugti. Police sources said the remote-controlled explosive device had been placed by a road and it exploded when a vehicle carrying personnel of the Bhombor Rifles, a wing of the Frontier Corps, was passing. A spokesman for the Baloch Republican Army claimed responsibility for the attack. Security forces captured Taliban commander Mullah Mansoor Dadullah along with five other Taliban militants after a gun-battle in the Gowal Ismailzai village of Qila Saifullah district (near the Afghan border). He is the younger brother of Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, who was killed in a clash with the US-led forces in Afghanistan’s Helmand province in May 2007. "Mansoor Dadullah is alive, but he is injured and in the custody of the authorities along with five other Taliban who too have received injuries," caretaker Interior Minister Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Nawaz said.
February 12	Eight people, including four journalists, sustained injuries when a bomb exploded near the election office of two independent candidates in the Khuzdar district. Deputy Superintendent of Police Abdul Samad Mengal said the bomb was planted on the carrier of a bicycle parked near the joint election office of independent candidates Mir Muhammad Ayub Jattak and Sardar Muhammad Aslam Bazenjo at Azadi Chowk. Security force personnel arrested over 40 suspects during a search operation launched in the some areas. Beebarg Baloch, a spokesman for the banned Baloch Liberation Army, meanwhile, claimed that the security forces had launched a massive operation in the Siah Geri area of Kahan sub-division of Kohlu district and arrested over 150 people of the Marri tribe.
February 13	Two explosions were reported from the Mastung and Kharan towns. However, no loss of life or injuries was reported. While an explosive device planted near the District Coordination Officer’s office in Kharan went off triggering panic in the area, Police said the second explosive device had been planted in an open area in Mastung. A landmine reportedly hit a tractor trolley in the Feeder area.
February 14	Four children and a man were injured when a bomb exploded in the coalmine town of Mach. According to police, the bomb was planted near a mosque. Two explosions were reported from Nushki. Police said that the explosive devices had been planted outside the election campaign offices of the Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Q. The blasts damaged a portion of a wall. Police seized four AK-47 rifles, besides five magazines and a hand-grenade from a Hub-bound ambulance coming from Turbat. "We have arrested five people, including three women, who were in the ambulance," an unnamed police officer said.
February 15	A boy was killed and three others sustained injuries when a landmine exploded in the Qadirabad village of Noshki district. Police sources said the landmine had been planted near the Hashima Mosque.
February 17	Four security force personnel were killed and another wounded when a landmine exploded in the Pir Koh gas field area of Dera Bugti district. Sources said that a landmine planted by militants in Haideri Nallah near Pir Koh gas field blew up a vehicle carrying Frontier Corps personnel. A police officer was killed and eight other people, including an MQM candidate and two police personnel, were injured in different attacks. According to police sources, the MQM candidate for NA-259, Abdul Ghani Kasi, was sitting in his election office when unidentified people riding a motorbike hurled a hand-grenade which exploded in the office. "The candidate and three MQM workers received serious injuries," said Deputy Inspector General of Police Rehmatullah Niazi. Four persons, including two police officers, were injured in Killi Qambrani, in the outskirts of provincial capital Quetta, when some people attacked the polling station with a hand-grenade. Some people lobbed a hand-grenade on the roof of a government school in Killi Ismail housing a polling station. Another blast was reported from the Sariab area while two other polling stations and the office of a union council were bombed in Mashkey. A bomb exploded near the Turbat Model High School and explosions were also reported from the Sado-Jhakrani area of Jaffarabad, Khuzdar, Mach, Kalat, Tump, Awaran and Killi Jamaldini of Noshki in government buildings housing polling stations. However, no casualty was reported in these blasts. Train service between provincial capital Quetta and rest of the country was suspended after railway tracks were blown up at two places, near Killi Zehri and Degree College in Sariab area. Four electric pylons were blown up in the Kohlu and Jaffarabad districts causing suspension in power supply. Another half a dozen explosions were reported from different areas damaging polling stations.
February 19	In the elections in Balochistan, the PML-Q won 17 seats out of 44, while the Pakistan People’s Party won seven seats. Independent candidates won ten seats.
February 21	Unidentified assailants shot dead three traffic policemen in Quetta. Capital City Police Officer Mohammad Akbar said the officers, Sub-Inspector Abdul Latif and Constables Bashir and Muhammad Ayub, were performing routine traffic duty in Killi Ismail when assailants rode up to them on a motorcycle and opened fire. Bibarg Baloch, a spokesman of the banned Balochistan Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for the attack.
February 24	A gas pipeline was blown up by insurgents in the Pirkoh area of Dera Bugti district. Police said that the explosive device had been planted under the 18-inch diameter pipeline.
February 25	Three security force personnel were killed and five others injured when a remote control bomb hit their vehicle the in Sangsila area of Dera Bugti. One civilian was killed and two others were wounded when their motorcycle hit a landmine near Sui. Militants blew up a portion of the 16-inch gas pipeline in the Loti area of Dera Bugti district. The Baloch Republican Army claimed responsibility for the incident.
February 26	Armed men shot dead two civilians in the Noshki area. Police sources said Ikram Ahmed and Khadim Hussain were engaged in repair work in the Noshki district jail when two armed men riding a motorbike opened fire on them, killing them on the spot. A spokesman for the Baloch Republican Army has claimed responsibility for the attack.
February 29	Suspected militants triggered a bomb blast in an open ground at Killi Khezi in the suburb of Quetta. However, no loss of life or property was reported.
March 3	Five Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were injured when a landmine exploded in the Dera Bugti district. According to sources, a vehicle carrying the five FC personnel to Sui hit the landmine near the Pesh Bogi area. Four soldiers sustained injuries when their vehicle hit a landmine in the Barkhan area. Two pylons of a high power transmission line were blown up near Dera Allayhyar, suspending power supply to Shikarpur from the Och power plant in Dera Murad Jamali. Suspected insurgents damaged a gas pipeline in Hazargangi in the outskirts of Quetta.
March 4	A soldier of the Rangers was killed and another sustained injuries when their vehicle hit a landmine on the Sui road near Kashmore late. Reports said that a party of Rangers was patrolling the road to keep watch over a gas pipeline laid from Sui to Punjab and Balochistan, when their vehicle hit a landmine and blew up with huge explosion.
March 5	Security forces foiled an attempt to blow up two bridges linking Dera Bugti with the other areas. Police sources said that three suspected militants had been arrested and 40kg of high explosives and two remote-controlled bombs seized from the area during a search operation. Staff of the Attock Cement Factory going in a van to Karachi narrowly escaped an explosion in the Sakran area of Hub. A bomb planted on a road exploded when the van was passing through the area.
March 6	One soldier was killed and two others sustained injuries when a military truck struck a landmine near Dera Bugti. The vehicle was reportedly carrying troops on a routine patrol when it hit the landmine, local police chief Najmuddin Tareen said.
March 7	Frontier Crops personnel recovered more than 8,000 rounds of 12.7 mm gun from the Chagai Mountains. Unidentified miscreants had dumped the ammunition in the mountains which was to be smuggled to interior Balochistan for terrorist acts, official sources said.
March 8	A bomb blast at a small hotel in Kohlu, a remote town about 200 kilometres east of Quetta, killed one person and injured two others. A powerful blast damaged several carriages of a goods train going to Ahmedwall from Noshki. The device was planted on the track and the explosion derailed the engine and five bogies of the Taftan express, which had been carrying rice and vegetables. Five suspected suicide bombers were arrested after a powerful explosion left four of them injured in a house in Pashtoonabad in Quetta. "A suicide jacket, around 3kg of high explosive material, two remote-controlled systems, four electronic detonators, Jihadi literature and CDs were seized from the house," said Rehmatullah Niazi, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations). According to police sources, the explosion occurred in a house in the Usman Qila area. "The suspects injured in the explosion were preparing a suicide jacket during which the explosion occurred," Niazi said, adding that they were planning a suicide attack in Quetta.
March 10	A truck of the Frontier Corps passing through the Eidgah Road was attacked with a hand-grenade. The grenade exploded after bouncing off the truck, injuring five people sitting outside a tea stall. Another explosion in a street off the busy Orchard Road injured a six-year-old girl. Two persons were injured when they stepped over a landmine near Goth Abdul Rehman. A rocket fired by militants damaged a portion of the Panjgur airport radar room. The militants managed to flee after the airport security guards returned fire. A man claiming to be the spokesman of the BLA and identifying himself as Beebarg Baloch claimed that five security force personnel, who were trying to defuse a landmine, were killed and three others were injured after it was detonated with a remote control near Kahan.
March 11	Troops at the Chaman border seized arms and ammunition from a car which had crossed over from Afghanistan. According to Colonel Syed Agha Mohammed Haider, the troops seized 13 rocket shells, four rifles, two pistols and more than 100 machine-gun rounds. However, he added, no one was arrested and two men in the car escaped.
March 11	Two pylons of a high power transmission line were blown up, causing suspension of power supply to several areas of Dera Allahyar. Police sources said that explosive devices placed near the pylons of 220kv Shaikarpur-Uch power transmission line blew up.
March 13	Power supply to various areas of the Bolan district was disrupted after four pylons of two high-power transmission lines were blown up. Officials said some saboteurs had planted heavy explosives around three pylons of 220 KV and one pylon of 132 KV of the Sibi-Mach transmission lines.
March 14	Five persons were wounded after an explosive device planted in a bicycle hit the vehicle of a tribal elder, Wadera Abdul Rehman Bugti, in the Naka Jatoi area of Dera Murad Jamali in Nasirabad district.
March 15	Gunmen riding motorcycles shot dead a coastguard and injured two others in the industrial town of Hub. The attack was claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army.
March 17	Two SF personnel, Gul Zaman and Abdul Rauf, were killed when their road-clearing vehicle hit a landmine in the Telawagh area of Dera Bugti district.
March 18	A man, identified as Ghulam Bahadur, was killed and two others, Abdul Khalil Bugti and Mir Muhammad Bugti, were injured when their vehicle hit a landmine in the Sui area of Dera Bugti district. The vehicle of a tribal elder, Wadera Bashir Chanrazi, hit a landmine. The tribal leader, however, escaped unhurt.
March 19	A FC soldier, identified as Zulfiqar Ali, was killed and another sustained injuries by armed men on a motorbike on the Manu Jan Road in Quetta. Security forces foiled an attempt to blow up a bridge on the Dera Bugti-Sangsilla road. About 55kgs of high explosives in two bags had been placed under the bridge but were detected before the saboteurs could detonate them.
March 23	A labourer was killed in a landmine explosion in the Sui area. Police sources said that a landmine planted by militants on an under-construction road exploded when labourers commenced work. One of the labourers died on the spot and two others sustained injuries. Militants blew up two power pylons near Kohlu, causing suspension of electricity supply to a vast area in the Kohlu township.
March 24	Unidentified people blew up a bulldozer and a vehicle of the security forces with explosives in Quetta. However, no loss of life was reported.
March 27	Gas supply was suspended to a private power plant and seven other industrial units when some people blew up the main gas pipeline near Kolpur. A railway track linking the provincial capital Quetta with Iran was blown up near Dalbandin. A bomb blast was reported from Quetta and a grenade exploded in a grid station in Sariab.
March 28	Two people were injured when some people hurled a hand-grenade on a house in the industrial town of Hub. Railway traffic between Quetta and the rest of the country was suspended for several hours after a portion of the main track was blown up by saboteurs near the Degree College. However, no loss of life or injuries was reported. A gas pipeline was blown up on the outskirts of Quetta causing suspension of gas supply to various parts of the provincial capital. Militants attacked check-posts of security forces in the Dera Bugti and Kahan areas of the Kohlu district. Official sources said 22 rockets were fired on check-posts in different areas. However, they said, the rockets landed in open places areas. Beebargh Baloch, spokesman for the banned Baloch Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
March 29	A policeman, Syed Jamil Shah, was killed by suspected insurgents in the Saddar Police Station area of Quetta by unidentified militants.
March 30	Militants blew up a stretch of a 20-inch-diameter gas pipeline in the Sui area of Dera Bugti district. However, no loss of life or injuries was reported.
April 1	Police said that unidentified gunmen killed one Frontier Corps trooper, Habibur Rehman, and injured four soldiers after opening fire at them in Quetta. Police official Raja Fayyaz told AP that the soldiers came under fire as they travelled through Quetta on a routine patrol. There was no claim of responsibility.
April 2	Two civilians, Lal Khan and Ali Jan, were killed after their donkey cart hit a landmine in Sohbatpur in the Nasirabad district. Two people were killed in a bomb blast in the Bagar area of Jaffarabad district. The bomb, planted on a bicycle, exploded, killing a local landlord and his aide. Two SF personnel were shot dead by unidentified armed men at the Quetta airport road near Killi Alamo. The SF personnel were on their routine assignment in plain clothes when unidentified assailants attacked them. The Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the killing. Security forces are reported to have defused a landmine near a bridge in the Sangsela area in the Dera Bugti district.
April 3	At least nine persons were injured in bomb blasts in Dera Allahyar and Mastung. Three guards of pro-government tribal elder Wadera Bungal Khan Bugti and three passers-by were injured when a remote-controlled bomb attached to a parked motorcycle exploded near Sobatpur Chowk in Dera Allahyar. Bungal Khan, a former commander of the slain nationalist leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti, escaped unhurt. Three linemen of the Quetta Electric Supply Company were wounded when a landmine exploded in the Pashkram village of Mastung district. They were repairing a power pylon which had been blown up on April 2-night. Supply from the Pir Koh gas field to the main purification plant in Sui was suspended after a pipeline was blown up by suspected insurgents in the Dashat Goran area of Dera Bugti district. SFs arrested four suspected suicide bombers from the Naseerabad district. The suspects were arrested from a passenger bus traveling from Peshawar in the NWFP to Quetta. SF personnel seized suicide jackets and explosives from the possession of the alleged bombers.
April 4	Four foreigners suspected of having links with al Qaeda were arrested from the Dera Murad Jamali area of Nasirabad district. They were reportedly travelling in a Peshawar-bound bus. "The suspects are Turkish nationals. They were going to Jacobabad when security officials intercepted the bus on Thursday night," sources told Dawn. A large quantity of high explosives, 1,600 rounds of sub-machine gun, a laptop, 10 Jihadi books, CDs, fake Afghan refugee cards, some dollars and riyals and a digital camera were seized from their possession.
April 6	One militant was killed in an exchange of fire with the SFs in the Mand area of Turbat. Official sources said that the militants attacked a convoy passing through Mand, a small town near the Pakistan-Iran border. Security forces retaliated, killing one of the militants and injuring another. "We have seized a huge quantity of arms and ammunition left behind by the militants," Frontier Corps sources said. Four SF personnel were injured when a landmine exploded in the Dera Bugti district. Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi has said that reconciliation efforts have begun in the province and the new Government will take steps to make them successful. He informed the media in provincial capital Quetta that stopping military operation and restoring peace and normality in the province would be the new Government’s priority. He said the Government’s first task should be to initiate dialogue with dissidents because the use of force over the past five years had not yielded any positive result.
April 7	Two SF personnel were killed and five others sustained injuries in bomb blasts and armed attacks on SFs in the Khuzdar, Noshki and Hub areas. Sources said that a FC vehicle was hit by a remote-controlled bomb near Government Girls College in Noshki, killing a soldier and injuring two others. The FC soldiers were on their way to Noshki from their check-post when they came under attack. Another FC trooper was killed in Khuzdar when unidentified assailants opened fire at their vehicle on a bridge in the Khatan area. Unidentified people also attacked a police van with a bomb at the Hub-Dureji road in the Lasbela district, injuring three police personnel. The Balochistan Assembly in its inaugural session unanimously adopted a resolution calling for an immediate end to military operations in the province. The resolution also called for the release of Balochistan National Party (Mengal faction) chief Akhtar Mengal and all detained political activists, and the rehabilitation of Balochistan’s internally displaced people. The House also passed a resolution unanimously calling for an UN-led investigation into former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. A resolution moved by 12 legislators demanded a judicial inquiry into the murder of former Balochistan governor Nawab Akbar Bugti and former Member of Provincial Assembly Balaach Marri. Another related resolution called for an UN-supervised probe into their murders, and demanded that Bugti’s body be handed over to his family. The fourth resolution demanded the abolition of the police and restoration of the Levies Force.
April 9	The proscribed BLA rejects the Government’s offer for talks, saying it was not ready even to consider it. Talking to Dawn by a satellite phone, the BLA spokesman Beebarg Baloch said: "We regard the Government’s offer for talks as its defeat because previously it was not ready even to recognise the existence of the BLA." He said that three pillars of what he called genocide of the Baloch nation - establishment, the army and the Musharraf-led system - were intact and the Government could not hoodwink the Baloch people. He said that two former governors of Balochistan, a chief minister, a provincial minister and a federal minister were on the hit-list of the BLA.
April 10	A pipeline supplying gas to the Pir Koh gas plant was blown up. Police sources said the blast was caused by an explosive device planted under the 16-inch diameter pipeline connecting the gas plant with the Pir Koh field. However, no loss of life or injuries was reported. Militants fired rockets and gun shots on a check-post of the security forces in the Arand area of Sibi. The rockets, however, did not hit the target. Sources said that armed men damaged some machinery being used for construction of roads in the area. Claiming responsibility for the attack, a Baloch Liberation Army spokesman said security forces had suffered casualties.
April 12	Two people were killed in a landmine explosion in the Pat Feeder area of Dera Bugti district. The victims were on way to their village on a motorcycle when the bike hit the landmine when they reached near the Rd-238 area of the Pat Feeder Canal, killing the two on the spot, police sources said.
April 13	A hand-grenade lobbed on children playing cricket and football in the Ayub Stadium in Quetta, caused injuries to three boys.
April 14	A man was killed and four others sustained injuries in a landmine explosion in the Mastung district. According to police sources, employees of the Water and Power Development Authority were repairing a damaged power pylon in the Pashkaram area of Mastung when one of them stepped over a landmine.
April 15	Two FC personnel, Saifur Rehman and Saifitullah, were shot dead in Quetta. One person was killed and three others sustained injuries when a landmine exploded in the Patokh area of Dera Bugti district. Just a few yards away, another man was killed when the camel he was riding stepped on a landmine. Armed people fired rockets on some check-posts of the security forces in Dera Bugti. However, no loss of life was reported. A spokesman for the BLA, Beebargh Baloch, claimed responsibility for the killing of FC personnel in Quetta. He also said that the BLA was behind landmine explosions in Mastung and Khuzdar. He accused the security forces of arresting many innocent people during search operations in the Seiah Koh area of Marri and Dera Bugti.
April 17	Unidentified armed men killed a police constable and injured two others in Quetta. Constable Amin Atif was shot dead by unidentified persons on the city’s Joint Road while another policeman, Munir Ahmed, and a civilian, Abdul Sattar, were injured in the incident.
April 18	Two security force personnel were killed and another sustained injuries in a landmine explosion in the Dera Bugti district. A paramilitary force vehicle was on routine patrol in the Thoba Nothani locality of the district when it hit a landmine. An explosion near the building of the Balochistan Intermediate and Secondary Education Board in the provincial capital Quetta damaged the windowpanes of the adjacent buildings without causing any causality. The banned BLA claimed responsibility for the killing of a policeman in Quetta on April 17, and warned that it would carry out more such attacks in future. Attacks by the BLA have reportedly intensified since the new government took over, despite an offer by Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani to resolve differences through dialogue. The BLA has rejected the offer.
April 20	Three security force personnel were killed and a civilian was injured in the Hub area. Police sources said two armed men on a motorcycle opened fire on a FC vehicle near the Gadani bus stop. "Two soldiers died and another succumbed to injuries in hospital," police said. The driver of a bus which was passing through the area at the time of the firing was injured. A FC trooper was killed and another sustained injuries when a landmine exploded in the Sangsella area of Dera Bugti district. A check-post of the security forces was attacked in the Kahan area of Kohlu district. However, the rockets did not hit the post. Suspected insurgents blew an 18-inch diameter gas pipeline near the Loti area suspending gas supply to the plant in Sui. This gas pipeline was laid between Pirkoh and Sui and was one of the major lines in the area. The same pipeline was reportedly blown up three days back in the same area, sources said.
April 21	The Balochistan Government withdrew all cases, including those of sedition, against detained former Balochistan Chief Minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal, but Mengal’s Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal) rejected the move, terming it a "cosmetic measure taken by a powerless provincial government."
April 22	The Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Balochistan University, Dr. Safdar Kiyani, was shot dead by insurgents in Quetta. According to sources, two people on a motorbike opened fire on Dr. Kiyani when he came out of his house in the Green Town area on Sariab road for an evening walk. The BLA has claimed responsibility for the murder. "He had been working for intelligence agencies and we had already warned him," the BLA spokesman Beebargh Baloch told reporters from an unspecified location. Two soldiers of the Frontier Corps were injured when their vehicle hit a landmine in the Doli Wad area of Kohlu district. Three soldiers were wounded in three landmine blasts in the Lehri, Sangsella and Karmo Wad areas of Dera Bugti and Kohlu districts.
April 26	Two people were injured when a bomb exploded under a tractor trolley in the Pat Feeder area of the Dera Bugti district. The offices of an intelligence agency and the executive district officer of the public health department were damaged in a bomb explosion in the Dear Bugti town. Militants blew up a gas pipeline in the Sui area near Jaffarabad, suspending the gas supply to various districts in Punjab province. The banned Baloch Republican Army claimed responsibility for the incident.
April 27	Two gas pipelines were blown up, suspending supplies to several districts in the Punjab province. A main gas pipeline transporting natural gas from the Sui plant in Dera Bugti district and a pylon supplying power to the Attock Cement Factory were damaged, said Sui gas spokesman Muhammad Inayatullah. However, no loss of life no injuries was reported. The Baloch Republican Army claimed responsibility for both the explosions.
April 28	The railway link between provincial capital Quetta and the rest of Pakistan was cut off after the main track was blown up by insurgents in the Sariab area. It was the second incident of the blowing up of railway track in 24 hours. According to sources, a four-foot portion of track was blown up by some people in the Dashat area, some 30km off Quetta, at 2am. The building of the Kalat post office was damaged when a bomb exploded near it. Beebargh Baloch, spokesman for the banned Baloch Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for blowing up the track and the blast in Kalat.
April 29	Two Military Intelligence (MI) personnel were killed in Khuzdar. A police official said that Mohammad Yaqoob Lashari and Abdul Hameed were going to a hotel when unidentified militants on a motorcycle opened fire on them and sped away. The MI personnel reportedly died on the spot. Police subsequently raided several places, including hostels of the Khuzdar Degree College and Engineering University, and detained about 30 suspects for questioning. Suspected militants killed a police constable, Mubarak Khan, at a check-post in the Mangochar area of Kalat. The Baloch Liberation Army’s spokesman Beebargh Baloch claimed responsibility for killing the two MI personnel in Khuzdar and the policeman in Kalat.
May 1	A policeman, Jumma Khan, was shot dead by the insurgents in Quetta. The Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 2	One person was killed and nine others, including eight security force personnel, were injured in incidents of hand-grenade attack and firing. Police said unidentified people opened fire at a sweet mart in the Killi Kalalo area of Sariab, killing one person and injuring another. Sources said unidentified people attacked a party of the Balochistan Constabulary with a hand-grenade on the Sabzal road, injuring seven soldiers. In another incident, armed people injured one Frontier Corps personnel. Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said that the military operations in Balochistan have been stopped. Addressing the Balochistan cabinet in the provincial capital Quetta, the Prime Minister asked the federal and provincial Governments to withdraw all cases registered against former Chief Minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal so that he could be released. "I asked the military to stop operation in Balochistan until I am briefed by the new provincial Government on the ground realities in the province," he said. "It has been decided that no army action will be carried out in the province until a strategy is formulated in consultation with representatives of the provincial Government to deal with the issue of law and order in the province," he stated. The Prime Minister also reportedly ordered the provincial Governments to use all available resources to trace the ‘missing people’ of Balochistan and other provinces.
May 3	Three bomb blasts were reported from Quetta. Police said two explosions occurred in the early hours at two nearby streets in the Huda area. The bombs had been planted in dustbins close to houses at the Sheikh Omar road and the Ahmed Shah Street. Another explosion occurred in the afternoon close to the house of one Nizamuddin Kakar in the Balochi Street area. However, no one was injured in the explosions.
May 4	Two suspected militants, Rustam Bugti and Abdul Rehman Bugti, were killed and four others sustained injuries in an encounter with the security forces in the Sangsilla area of Dera Bugti district. Sources said the encounter occurred when some militants attacked the Jagani check-post. The federal Government has decided to withdraw the Frontier Corps (FC) from Gwadar and Quetta and hand over the responsibility of managing the law and order to police in the two cities. APP reported that FC sources said more than 600 FC troops had been withdrawn from 28 check-posts in the provincial capital Quetta, adding that about the same number of troops had also been recalled from the Gwadar district.