Gunmen stormed mines of Junaid Coal Company in the early hours of Friday in the Duki district of Balochistan province, killing at least 20 workers. According to local police, the attackers, numbering around 40, attacked the accommodation of the workers, took all of them hostage, and then started opening fire with heavy weaponry including grenades and rocket launchers.
A hospital in Duki confirmed it received 20 bodies and is treating six individuals for injuries sustained during the assault. “As he hid, he saw a drone hovering in the air with a red light on,” said Hafeezullah, who survived the attack, which was marked by the gunmen shouting threats related to their work at the security guards.
The attack is believed to have begun around 12 am and lasted for nearly 90 minutes. During this time, the terrorists threw incendiary devices on the ground and hurled grenades which detonated. Rocket launchers, too, were reportedly used, said police chief Asim Shafi. Among the dead are four Afghan nationals, with others said to belong to Pashto-speaking parts of Balochistan.
This attack is part of an alarming spate of violence in the region, with no one claiming responsibility so far. However, the separatist group known as the Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, has attacked security and civilians before as it maintains its campaign for independence for Balochistan.
Mine owner Khairullah Nasar said that his organisation had received threats from militants, but there was no intelligence about the attack. The incident takes place a time when clashes and violence are on the rise in the province that showed a spate of militant activities before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit to take place in Islamabad next week.
Balochistan chief minister Sarfraz Bugti terming it a reprehensible one stated that the killing of laborers presents an agenda to destabilize Pakistan. Those will not go unpunished who killed innocent workers.
Pakistani authorities have devised security schemes due to heightened threats, and the movement of Chinese citizens is being curbed in the area, especially after recent attacks on foreign nationals.
