Two soldiers shot dead, two injured in Khuzdar

The Baloch Hal News

QUETTA: At least two army personnel were killed and two others were injured after unidentified motorcyclists opened indiscriminate fire on a group of soldiers in Khuzdar bazaar on Saturday.

According to the official sources, two recruits of the security forces were gunned down by unknown attackers who assaulted a group of soldiers in Khuzdar by shooting at them. Nazir Kurd, the local police chief said, a group of around ten soldiers had come from Khuzdar Cantonment area to Khuzdar bazaar to do some shopping and do visit a local bank for transaction of money. They had parked their vehicle at Police Lane and were walking towards the bank located  inside the market when around four people riding two motorcycle opened indiscriminate fire and killed two personnel and injured two more.

Sources identified the killed personnel as Mohammad Sharif and Mohammad Rasool. They belonged to Attock and Kohat respectively.

“When the attack took place, the soldiers were not carrying any weapons as they did not use any weapons to retaliate,” said one eye-witness. All the injured and dead soldiers were initially shifted to Khuzdar’s Civil Hospital and then taken to Quetta’s Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for further treatment. The condition of one injured, who was identified as Samandar Khan, was reported to be unstable.

The area was soon cordoned off by personnel of the Frontier Corps, Anti-Terrorist Force (ATF), local police and other federal forces. They began a fresh search operation against the perpetrators of Saturday’s killings. While the attackers managed to escape the firing scene, no group has accepted responsibility for the killings. Balochistan has been experiencing a low-level insurgency for the past six years where Baloch armed groups are asking for independence from Pakistan by applying violent means.

Soon after Saturday’s shootout, shopkeepers in the area began to shut their shops and the entire district gave a deserted look. Local residents said Khuzdar remained in the grip of fear and uncertainty throughout the day and Saturday evening as more forces were deployed in the district. There were reports of fresh search operations in the area to hunt down the murderers of the army personnel.

Situation in Khuzdar has remained tense since January 15 when two activists of the Baloch Students’ Organization (BSO) were killed allegedly by the Frontier Corps  (FC) when its personnel opened indiscriminate fire on the protestors. The killing of Baloch activists was followed by killing of four Punjabi settlers in Quetta, Mastung and Kalat districts. The Frontier Corps had disassociated itself with the firing incident in Khuzdar by saying that its personnel were not deployed at the very rally where the firing incident took place. Balochistan’s chief minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani has ordered an official probe in the killing of BSO activists which has sparked a wave of protests across Balochistan.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) condemned what it described as a nefarious act of terrorism in Khuzdar district on Saturday.