Dozens of attackers armed with weapons, rockets and hand grenades have stormed a cluster of personal coalmines in south-western Pakistan on Friday, taking pictures some miners of their sleep and others after lining them up, killing no less than 21, police have mentioned.
The assault by about 40 armed males days earlier than Pakistan hosts a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation grouping is the worst in weeks within the restive, mineral-rich province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
“The armed terrorists remained for around one-and-a-half hours in the mining area,” regional police official Asif Shafi mentioned. “They fired rockets and hurled grenades at the mines and miners’ quarters.”
The attackers additionally set hearth to equipment on-site, mentioned a senior authorities official within the district, Kaleemullah Kakar. Seven extra individuals had been wounded, he mentioned.
There was no rapid declare of accountability for the assault on the small mines of the Junaid Coal Co within the Duki space. Among the many lifeless have been 4 Afghan nationals, whereas one other 4 have been injured.
Afghanistan’s ministry of overseas affairs strongly condemned the assault in a press release, and assigned its Quetta consulate to facilitate the switch of the our bodies.
Companies and outlets have been shut in Duki as a whole lot of individuals gathered together with the our bodies of the lifeless in a protest to demand the arrest of the attackers, police mentioned.
“We were receiving threats from the militants for some time but there was no information about the attack,” mentioned mine proprietor Khairullah Nasar, who can be the chair of the district council.
The attackers burnt down all 10 mines, together with the tools and equipment inside, he added.
A decades-long insurgency in Balochistan – Pakistan’s poorest province – by separatist militant teams has led to frequent assaults towards the federal government, military and Chinese language pursuits within the area to press calls for for a share in mineral-rich regional sources. A number of assaults have focused migrant employees, together with some from Afghanistan, employed by smaller, privately operated mines.
The assaults have risen in latest months, mentioned the provincial governor, Jafar Khan Mandokhel, who referred to as the miners’ killing an inhuman act.
“On one side you talked about your independence and your rights and on the other hand you are killing innocent labourers,” he instructed a information convention, referring to the separatist militant teams. “We condemn it strongly and we will take all-out action against it.
The government was “determined to root out all forms of terrorism”, the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, mentioned in a press release.
The provincial authorities had ordered an investigation and a case had been “registered against unknown assailants under the terrorism law”, mentioned a authorities official, talking on situation of anonymity.
In addition to the separatists, the area can be residence to Islamist militants, who’ve resurged since 2022 after revoking a ceasefire with the federal government. Two Chinese language nationals working for an influence plant have been killed this week in a blast within the southern metropolis of Karachi, for which the Baloch Liberation Military (BLA) – one in all a number of rebel teams battling the federal government – claimed accountability.
The BLA was additionally behind Balochistan’s most widespread violence in years in August, which focused police stations, railway strains and highways, killing greater than 70 individuals. Armed males who stormed the residence of labourers from the japanese province of Punjab final month killed seven.
On Friday, crossfire between police and attackers killed two suspected militants concerned in a 2021 assault on dam mission employees that killed 13, together with 9 Chinese language nationals.
With Agence France-Presse
