At least six people were killed and three others injured on Friday when an explosion tore through an orchard in the Khad Kocha area of Balochistan’s Mastung district, according to police. Law enforcement teams and a bomb disposal unit quickly deployed to the scene to investigate the nature of the blast and determine whether a device had been planted at the site, as reported by Geo News.
Emergency Response at Mastung Blast Site
Following the Friday explosion, security personnel cordoned off the orchard grounds while emergency responders transferred the victims to Ghaus Bakhsh Raisani Hospital, according to Geo News. Medical staff at the facility handled emergency treatment for the three wounded individuals alongside standard medico-legal procedures for the deceased, as noted by Khyber News. Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact device or trigger mechanism behind the incident, though a dispatched bomb disposal squad began examining the crater and surrounding debris shortly after securing the perimeter.
Security Crisis and Rising Militant Activity in Balochistan
The Mastung district attack follows a similar roadside bombing days earlier in the Wali Tangi area of the Hanna Urak recreational spot in Quetta, which killed two people and injured two others, according to Geo News and Khyber News. Pakistan has experienced a sharp escalation in militant violence—particularly across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan—since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021. Data compiled by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) for the second quarter of 2026 shows that KP and Balochistan accounted for nearly 96% of all violence-linked fatalities nationwide. During that period, KP recorded over 61% of deaths (475 fatalities), while Balochistan accounted for 34%, equating to 265 deaths, per Geo News reporting.
Counterterrorism Operations Underway
To counter the expanding footprint of armed militant networks in the region, security forces have ramped up targeted intelligence-based operations across Balochistan under the ongoing Operation Rad-ul-Fitna-3 framework, according to Khyber News.