BLA Claims 13 Killed in Convoy Ambush, Bridge Blast Near Mastung's Khadkocha; Pakistan Confirms 2 Dead

On the night of August 22, 2026, Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) militants detonated an IED that destroyed a Pakistani military armoured vehicle in the Khadkocha area of Mastung district, Balochistan, then ambushed a second armoured vehicle and its accompanying convoy. BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch said the group's 'Special Tactical Operations Squad' carried out the attack and claimed 13 security personnel killed and 10+ injured, with two armoured vehicles destroyed. Pakistani authorities did not match that toll: regional hospital sources said 2 bodies and 8 wounded personnel were brought to Nawab Ghaus Bakhsh Raisani Memorial Hospital in Mastung, with additional wounded airlifted to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Quetta; a Dawn-network report described it as a single roadside IED in the nearby Goru area that killed 2 and injured 8, with no group claiming responsibility in that account. Separately the same night, unidentified attackers destroyed a culvert/bridge on the N-25 Quetta-Karachi highway near Injiri Cross-Khadkocha, disrupting traffic; no casualties were reported in that blast. The Balochistan Home Department imposed an indefinite curfew in Khadkocha and surrounding areas from 7:00 a.m. on August 23.