At least nine police officers have been killed by a suicide bomber, with 16 others sustaining injuries in an attack on a police truck on Monday in southwestern Pakistan, officials said.

“The suicide bomber was riding a motorbike and hit the truck from behind,” a senior police official Abdul Hai Aamir.

“The incident took place near Dhadar, the main town of Kachhi district, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) southeast of Quetta in Balochistan,” Aamir said.

The police chief for Kachhi district, Mehmood Notezai, told journalists that the officers were returning from a week-long cattle show where they had been providing security.

So far, there has been no claim of responsiblity for the attack.

Pakistani Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, in a statement released by his office, said “terrorism in Balochistan is part of a nefarious agenda to destabilise the country.”