Coffins of victims of an in a single day assault in Balochistan surrounded by coal miners and labourers, on 11 October 2024. (Farid KHAN / AFP)
- Not less than 21 miners died in an assault in Balochistan that featured rockets and hand grenades.
- There was no declare of duty, and the federal government continues to be investigating.
- Separatist militants have attacked international staff beforehand.
Dozens of attackers armed with weapons, rockets and hand grenades stormed a cluster of small non-public coal mines in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, slaying some miners of their sleep and taking pictures others after lining them up, killing a minimum of 21 within the restive area, police mentioned.
The assault by round 40 armed males days earlier than Pakistan hosts a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Group grouping is the worst in weeks within the mineral-rich province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
“The armed terrorists remained for round 1-1/2 hours within the mining space,” regional police official Asif Shafi informed Reuters. “They fired rockets and hurled grenades on the mines and miners’ quarters.”
There was no fast declare of duty for the assault on the mines of the Junaid Coal Co within the Duki space, which additionally injured six.
Among the many lifeless have been 4 Afghan nationals; one other 4 have been injured.
Afghanistan’s Ministry of International Affairs strongly condemned the assault in a press release, and assigned its Quetta consulate to facilitate the switch of the our bodies.
Companies and retailers have been shut in Duki as lots of of individuals gathered together with the our bodies of the lifeless in a protest to demand the arrest of the attackers, police mentioned.
“We have been receiving threats from the militants for a while however there was no details about the assault,” mentioned mine proprietor Khairullah Nasar, who can also be the chairman of the district council.
The attackers burnt down all 10 mines, together with the gear and equipment inside, he added.
A decades-long insurgency in Balochistan by separatist militant teams has led to frequent assaults in opposition to the federal government, military and Chinese language pursuits within the area to press calls for for a share in mineral-rich regional assets. A number of assaults have focused migrant staff, together with some from Afghanistan, employed by smaller, privately operated mines.
The assaults have risen in current months, mentioned provincial Governor Jafar Khan Mandokhel, who referred to as the miners’ killing an inhuman act.
“On one facet you talked about your independence and your rights and however you might be killing harmless labourers,” he informed a information convention, referring to the separatist militant teams, including, “We condemn it strongly and we’ll take all-out motion in opposition to it.”
The federal government was “decided to root out all types of terrorism”, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif mentioned in a press release.
“The provincial authorities has ordered an investigation and a case has been registered in opposition to unknown assailants below the terrorism legislation,” a authorities official mentioned, talking on situation of anonymity.
Apart from the separatists, the area can also 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, one in all a number of rebel teams battling the federal government, claimed duty.
The BLA was additionally behind Balochistan’s most widespread violence in years in August, which focused police stations, railway traces, and highways, killing greater than 70 folks. Armed males who stormed the residence of labourers from the jap 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 staff that killed 13, together with 9 Chinese language nationals.