Four labourers killed in militant attack in Pakistan’s Balochistan

At least four labourers were killed and an equal number injured when unidentified militants attacked a labour camp and opened indiscriminate fire on them in Harnai district in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, officials said on Saturday.

The attack, which happened on late Friday in Chaper left area of Harnai district, came just three days after armed men kidnapped four employees including two engineers of a private coal company in Quetta's Hanna Urak area.

The kidnapped employees were moved to an unknown location by the kidnappers who raided the coal mine where mostly workers belonging to Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

Officials of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority and Sibi division commissioner, Abdul Aziz confirmed the militant attack was carried out late at night as the armed men opened indiscriminate firing on the labourers.

"Three labourers died on the spot while three others were seriously wounded in the attack," the commissioner said.

But rescue officials who reached the spot to move the bodies and injured to Quetta said at least four labourers were killed on the spot and four injured.

Aziz said the attackers also set fire to the camp and gutted it while a number of vehicles were also set on fire by the marauders.

The labourers mostly belonging to other provinces were working on a government construction project.

No separatist or militant groups have so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

In the past also separatist and militant groups in Balochistan have targeted labourers belonging to other provinces who work in the province on government and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects.

In May 2017 armed men on motorcycles had opened fire on labourers working on a road in Gwadar killing ten of them on the spot.

Similarly, in 2018 six labourers working on network installation for a private telecommunication company were shot dead by unidentified men in Kharan district.

Then again, in early 2021 the dreaded Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the killing of 11 coal miners in the Mach area of Balochistan.

The militants first kidnapped the labourers all belonging to the Shia Hazara community from a coal mine and then killed them in the western Pakistani province of Balochistan.