Awaran police station stormed and plentifully looted

By Our Correspondent

AWARAN: Unidentified men attired in Frontier Corps (FC) uniforms attacked a police station in Awaran district and took away weapons worth millions of rupees after looting the arsenal located inside the police station and kidnapping four policemen who were subsequently released.

According to the details, around thirty-five unknown armed men attacked the District Police Station in Awaran district, 600 kilometers off Quetta, and kept the four policemen present on duty hostage.

According to an eyewitness, the attackers came in two vehicles. They wore official uniform which is normally worn by the elite commando force. They spoke Urdu with each other and tightened the hands and feet of all the four policemen on duty at the police station.

“Many officers had already gone on leave due to Eid holidays. Therefore, not many officials were present in the police station when it was stormed by unknown people midnight on Sunday,” said one official who requested anonymity.

The attackers looted the weapons store and carried away costly weapons worth millions of rupees. According to an estimate, they took away around six hundred guns, including Kalashnikovs. As the attackers ran away, they also kidnapped four policemen with them. However, the policemen were subsequently released in the mountainous area of Mangoli in Maskhy town of Awaran district.

BBC Urdu Service quoted Mohammad Ashrif, a policeman who was kidnapped and subsequently released, as saying that all four abducted policemen were allowed to go home after being driven for at least 20 kilometers. The attackers, he said, benefited from darkness and vanished in thin air.

The Awaran police have registered a case against unknown people and begun the search for the attackers who took away a huge number of weapons from the official store. No success was made by the police in connection to tracing the culprits nor did any group accept responsibility for the attack on the police station