|
2024-10-12 India-Pakistan
|
|
Gunmen kill at least 20 miners in Balochistan
|
[BBC] Gunmen have killed at least 20 people at a coal mine in Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan, according to local police.
The attackers stormed the workers' accommodation at the Junaid Coal Company mines in the province's Duki district in the early hours of Friday morning, rounded the men up and opened fire.
A hospital in Duki has received 20 bodies and is treating six injured people, reported Reuters.
The workers were attacked with heavy weapons, including rocket launchers and grenades, police said, while one survivor described seeing a drone overhead.
Subcontractor Hafeezullah told the BBC he spotted the drone and its red light as he and a number of others hid in the bathroom.
“When the attackers got closer they shouted ‘we told you to stop work here, why didn’t you?’,” he told the BBC. He said the attackers spoke in Pashto. “Then they opened fire.”
Hafeezullah estimates the attack, which he says started just after midnight, lasted for about an hour and a half, during which time machinery was set alight. He also heard loud explosions, which he thinks were grenades exploding.
Asim Shafi, police chief in Duki district, confirmed to news agency AFP both hand grenades and rocket launchers were used in the attack, which is believed to have been carried out by as many as 40 people who then disappeared "into the night".
Police confirmed that four of the victims were Afghans, while the rest of the men were from Pashto-speaking areas of Balochistan.
Hafeezullah says he lost several friends in the attack.
"When I left, there were people lying on the ground," he said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the killings so far. In the past, the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has carried out several deadly attacks in the province.
Mine owner Khairullah Nasar told news agency Reuters they had been getting "threats from the militants for some time, but there was no information about the attack".
Friday's attack is the latest to be carried out in recent days, and comes just ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a major security summit being hosted in the Pakistani capital Islamabad next week. 
|
Posted by Skidmark 2024-10-12 00:00||
||
Front Page|| [11140 views ]
Top
File under: Baloch Liberation Army
|
|
11:11 HeavyG
11:10 Angstrom
11:07 HeavyG
11:07 Angstrom
11:06 DarthVader
11:05 HeavyG
10:58 alanc
09:43 Mullah Richard
09:27 Warthog
09:11 Mercutio
09:07 AlmostAnonymous5839
08:52 Matt
08:24 Matt
08:20 SteveS
07:43 Procopius2k
07:42 BrerRabbit
07:42 Procopius2k
07:39 Procopius2k
07:36 Procopius2k
07:35 Procopius2k
07:34 trailing wife
07:31 Procopius2k
07:30 NN2N1
07:22 NN2N1
|
