Mastung truck bomb: police say two civilians died, local reports claim dozens of soldiers killed

A truck loaded with explosives was driven into a security installation in Balochistan’s Mastung district on Thursday, November 12, in an attack whose toll is still disputed. Police say two civilians and three attackers died. Local reports and a militant group claim far heavier losses among soldiers, and Pakistan’s military had issued no casualty figure when this report was written on the morning of November 13.

What police have said

The Balochistan Police spokesperson said militants made a “cowardly attack at Kandawa Post” on National Highway N-25 using an explosives-laden vehicle. According to the statement, relayed by state media, security personnel responded promptly, the attack was repulsed and the three attackers were killed in the retaliatory action.

Two civilians, named as Kaleemullah and Bibi Laiba, were killed. Several others were injured, among them three Frontier Corps personnel. The blast damaged nearby houses and a mosque. The statement said the attack showed the militants “had no connection with the people of Balochistan” and that operations against those seeking to undermine peace and development in the province “will continue”. It described the attackers with the label “Fitna Al-Hindustan”, which Islamabad uses for Baloch separatist groups and which carries its charge that India backs them. India has consistently rejected that accusation.

A different account from the camp

Other reports describe a heavier blow. A truck reportedly hit the main army camp in the Kanak area of Mastung, and the explosion was heard several kilometres away and broke windows in nearby houses. Local media, citing a Baloch news portal, said dozens of military personnel had been killed, with senior officers reportedly among them. Those reports said military authorities had issued no statement on casualties, and security forces cordoned off the area.

The Baloch Liberation Army, through its Majeed Brigade, claimed responsibility. Its spokesperson, Jeeyand Baloch, called it a suicide vehicle bombing at a camp in Kundab, in the Kanak area, and said 18 personnel were killed. The claim says the blast was followed by an assault by armed fighters inside the premises. A separate report on the day said no group had yet claimed the attack, which suggests the BLA’s claim came later.

None of the three figures can be checked independently. The police statement speaks of a post on the highway and does not mention an army camp or the military’s own losses, while the other accounts place the blast at a camp in Kanak. The sources have not established whether they describe the same site, and this report does not treat them as one.

How we got here

The attack comes in a run of violence in Balochistan. On October 18, troops killed four militants in Kalat, and a major was killed by a roadside bomb in Gwadar, as we reported on October 19. Pakistan’s military said on October 28 that nine militants were killed in operations in Kachhi and Wadh districts, and on November 3 that 17 were killed in intelligence-based operations in Kachhi and Kharan, in which one security person died.

On November 8, a smaller group, the Baloch Republican Guards, said a drone unit hit a joint military and police camp in Kachhi’s Bagh area and that an ambush in Bolan killed four personnel. Those claims are also unverified. A security think tank had counted a sharp fall in militant attacks nationally in October, as we reported on October 25, though it noted abductions rising in Balochistan.

Why it matters

An attack on a security site on the N-25 highway tests the official line that militant violence is being contained. The gap between the police toll and the local reports also shows how little can be confirmed so soon: each side’s figures reach the public first through its own channels, and none had been independently checked.

For India, the immediate effect is rhetorical. Islamabad ties each major attack in the province to New Delhi, and New Delhi rejects it. No Indian reaction to the Mastung attack had been reported by the morning of November 13.

What to watch

The first marker is a statement from the military’s media wing, ISPR, which would settle whether an army camp was hit and how many soldiers died. The second is whether the provincial government publishes names of the dead and injured, as it did for the two civilians. Funerals and hospital admissions in Mastung and Quetta would show the scale within a day or two. Any further claim from the BLA or other groups would be treated here as a claim, not as a finding.