December 1, 2022: A police officer and two civilians were killed in a suicide attack near Pakistan’s Balochistan Constabulary truck in Quetta’s Baleli area.

A suicide bomber from the banned Pakistani Taliban blew himself up near a patrolling police truck carrying security personnel to protect polio workers in the country’s restive Balochistan province on Wednesday, killing at least three people and injuring 28 others, including 20 security personnel.

The wounded have been admitted to the Civil Hospital Quetta.

Soon after the attack, the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack. They had called off the ceasefire agreed with the government in June.

The blast comes a day after the militant group called off its ceasefire with the government and asked its combatants to carry out attacks across the country.

TTP is a separate entity from the Taliban in Afghanistan but sharing a similar Islamist ideology, have been responsible for hundreds of attacks and thousands of deaths since emerging in 2007.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the incident and directed authorities to initiate an investigation into the attack.

The president also paid tribute to the policemen and health officials working for the eradication of polio.