Dozens of assailants armed with guns, rockets and grenades stormed a cluster of private coal mines in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, shooting dead miners as they slept and as they lined up, killing at least 21 people. Police announced that he had died.
The attack by about 40 gunmen, which took place days before Pakistan hosted a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, was the worst in recent weeks in the reactionary mineral-rich Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran. A situation arose.
“The armed terrorists remained in the mining area for about an hour and a half,” local police official Asif Shafi said. “They fired rockets and threw grenades at the mines and miners' quarters.”
Kareemullah Kakar, a government official in the area, said the attackers also set fire to machines on the premises. Seven more people were reportedly injured.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Junaid Coal Company's small mine in Duki district. The dead included four Afghans, and four more were injured.
Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the attack in a statement and assigned the Consulate General of Quetta to facilitate the removal of the bodies.
Police said hundreds of people gathered with bodies in a protest in Duki demanding the arrest of the attackers, and businesses and stores were closed.
“We have been receiving threats from extremists for some time, but we have had no information about attacks,” said Khairullah Nassar, a mine owner and district council president.
He added that the attackers burned down all 10 mines, as well as the equipment and machinery inside.
In Balochistan, Pakistan's poorest province, a decades-long insurgency by separatist militants has led to frequent attacks on government, military and Chinese interests in the region as they press for a share of the region's mineral-rich resources. connected to. Some attacks have targeted migrant workers, including those from Afghanistan employed in small private mines.
The provincial governor, Jafar Khan Mandkhel, said there had been an increase in attacks in recent months and called the killings of miners inhumane.
“On the one hand you talk about independence and rights, and on the other hand you kill innocent workers,” he told a news conference, referring to separatist militants. “We strongly condemn this and intend to take full action against it.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement that the government is “determined to eradicate all forms of terrorism.”
A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the state government had ordered a probe and “a case has been registered against the unidentified assailants under the Terrorism Act.”
In addition to separatists, the region is also home to Islamic extremists, who have been back in force since 2022 after breaking a ceasefire agreement with the government. This week, an explosion in the southern city of Karachi killed two Chinese workers at a power plant, with the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of several rebel groups fighting the government, claiming responsibility. .
In August, the BLA was involved in the worst violence in Balochistan in years, which targeted police stations, railway lines and highways, leaving more than 70 people dead. Last month, seven people were killed when gunmen attacked the homes of workers in the eastern province of Punjab.
A gunfight between police and assailants on Friday killed two militants believed to have been involved in the 2021 attack on dam project workers that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals.
with Agence France-Presse
