JAMMU: Five Punjabi labourers working on an under-construction road were killed and another seriously injured by unidentified armed men near the Saranan area of Balochistan’s Pishin district on August 24. Officials said the incident took place in the Sulemanzai area along the Quetta-Chaman Highway.
It seems like the handiwork of one of the Baloch nationalist armed groups who are fighting for independence of Balochistan from Pakistan occupation. Most of these groups have warned people of non-Baloch ethnicities not to come to Balochistan and participate in government or private work.
These armed Baloch groups have targeted drivers, transport vehicles, barbers, masons and miners from outside, mainly Punjab province, repeatedly during the past few years. Such incidents are meant to send a clear message to these people that they are not welcome in Balochistan.
Balochistan Chief Minister’s aide for political and media affairs Shahid Rind confirmed the incident. “The labourers were working on an under-construction road in the area when armed men targeted them,” Rind said, adding that one labourer sustained injuries and was taken to the district hospital along with the bodies.
Police and security forces rushed to the site and started an investigation, according to a Dawn report.
Bike borne assailants carry out attack
“Armed men arrived at the site on motorcycles and opened fire on the labourers,” a senior police officer posted in the area said. He added that the four labourers were killed on the spot after sustaining multiple bullet wounds. Sources said the victims were from Punjab and had come to the area in search of work.
The incident was the second such attack in the area in the past three days.
On Friday, armed men blew up a police station in Saranan town in the presence of hundreds of people, planting explosives after taking control of the facility.
According to official sources, armed men entered the town’s bazaar and surrounded the local police station. They entered the building, took police personnel hostage and ransacked official records.
The attackers later planted explosives at different points inside the police station before bringing the police personnel out of the building and detonating the explosives. Officials said no one was killed or injured, although the police station was badly damaged.
5 more bodies recovered elsewhere in province
Police said on Sunday that five bodies, including those of four men who had reportedly been shot dead, were recovered from different parts of Balochistan, including Chaman, Mastung and Sohbatpur.
Earlier this month, eight people were killed in separate incidents across Balochistan, including a passenger bus driver shot dead in Kachhi and two people gunned down in Khuzdar, police said.
According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies’ (PICSS) monthly security assessment released on July 31, the security situation deteriorated most significantly in Balochistan in the country last month. The overall death toll increased by 241 per cent in Balochistan, from 109 in June to 372 in July, the report said.
Security personnel deaths in Balochistan increased from six in June to 62 in July, representing a rise of 933 per cent. Terrorist deaths rose from 75 to 238, while civilian deaths increased by 93 per cent, from 28 to 54. Another 18 members of peace committees were also killed in the province.
Five bodies, including those of four men who had reportedly been shot dead, were recovered from different parts of Balochistan, police said on Sunday. In Chaman, the body of an unidentified man was recovered near Nato Market along the Pak-Afghan Highway. Police shifted the body to a hospital, while further investigation is underway.
Meanwhile, three unidentified bodies were recovered from the Sohbatpur area. According to police, all three men had been shot dead. The bodies were shifted to a hospital and, after necessary procedures, placed in the mortuary for identification.
Separately, police recovered the body of another unidentified man from the Khadkocha area of Mastung. Police said the man had been shot dead and his body was found lying by the roadside.
JI warns against giving Gwadar to Federal Govt
Meanwhile, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Balochistan chief Maulana Hidayatur Rehman Baloch has warned that any attempt to place Gwadar city under Federal administration or impose top-down decisions by the Establishment would face strong resistance from the local population and political forces.
Addressing a press conference at the Gwadar Press Club on Sunday evening, he maintained that ongoing discussions in official circles and on social media regarding the creation of new provinces or placing specific territories under federal control were “merely tactics” by the establishment to gauge public reaction.
Describing the current political situation as a “dictatorship” despite the existence of elected assemblies, Baloch claimed crucial national matters were being manipulated through proxy discussions rather than being brought before parliament.
