Pakistan says Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) armed group targeted vehicle with an improvised explosive device.

Seven Pakistani army soldiers have been killed when their vehicle was targeted by an improvised explosive device in the southwestern province of Balochistan, Pakistan’s military says, blaming India for the attack amid rising tensions.

Pakistan’s military said members of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) armed group targeted the vehicle carrying the soldiers in the province bordering Iran and Afghanistan on Tuesday.

It described the group as an “Indian proxy”, but it did not provide any evidence to support its claim. There was no immediate comment from New Delhi or the BLA.

An unnamed senior local government official told the AFP news agency the vehicle that was hit was part of a convoy on its way to a security operation.

He said five people were wounded and taken by helicopter to a military hospital in the provincial capital, Quetta.

More than 200 people, mostly members of the security forces, have been killed in 2025 by armed groups in Balochistan and neighbouring Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, according to an AFP tally.

At least 31 people, many of them soldiers, were killed in March when the BLA hijacked a train carrying more than 400 passengers while travelling from Quetta to the northern city of Peshawar.

The bombing of the military convoy was carried out amid heightened tensions between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India after a shooting attack in India-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam region on April 22 that killed 25 Indian tourists and one Nepalese citizen.

India blamed Pakistan for backing the “terrorist” group that carried out the attack, a charge Islamabad has denied.

After the Pahalgam attack, India and Pakistan have taken a series of steps against each other with Pakistan warning that India may be preparing to launch military attacks.

The two countries have suspended trade, shut down a land border crossing, closed off their airspace to one another, expelled citizens and diplomats, and India has suspended a key water treaty.

On Tuesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif along with the deputy prime minister, foreign and defence ministers, and the military chiefs visited the headquarters of the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, the country’s top spy agency, to attend a security briefing.

Pakistan has conducted two missile tests in three days while India has announced plans for civil defence drills across several states on Wednesday that will include air raid sirens and evacuation plans.

The two countries also aired their grievances during a United Nations Security Council meeting in New York on Monday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has emphasised the need to avoid a military confrontation that could “easily spin out of control”.

“Now is the time for maximum restraint and stepping back from the brink,” he said on Monday.