Pakistan Attack Kills 21 Miners

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

ISLAMABAD (Worthy News) – Pakistani authorities are investigating how dozens of attackers armed with guns, rockets, and hand grenades could storm a private coal mine in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 21 people.

The attackers slayed some miners in their sleep while shooting others after lining them up at the mines in the restive province of Balochistan, police said.

Friday’s attack by about 40 armed men came days before Pakistan hosts a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization, the Eurasian political, economic, international security and defence grouping established by China and Russia in 2001.

It is the world’s largest regional organization in terms of geographic scope and population, covering approximately 80 percent of the area of Eurasia and 40 percent.

Friday’s killings marked the worst in weeks in the mineral-rich province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran.

The attackers broke into the miners’ quarters in Balochistan’s Dukki district on Thursday night, gathered the workers together, and opened fire, local police official Hamayun Khan Nasir said on Friday.

“A group of armed men attacked the Junaid Coal company mines in the [Dukki] area in the [early] hours using heavy weapons,” he said, adding the attackers fired rockets and grenades at the mine as well.

AFGHAN VICTIMS

Several victims were from Pashtun-speaking regions within Balochistan, but three of the deceased and four of the injured were Afghan nationals, authorities said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on the mine of the Junaid Coal Co in the Duki area, which also injured up to seven people.

Mine owner Khairullah Nasar said they had been getting “threats from the militants for some time, but there was no information about the attack.”

It comes amid broader concerns about cases of violence in Pakistan, which has often been linked to Islamic extremists and hardline groups opposing the government.

Balochistan is a hotbed of armed movements, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) being the most prominent.

They blame the central government in Islamabad for exploiting Balochistan’s rich oil and mineral resources to the detriment of residents in the country’s largest and least-populated province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.

On Monday, the BLA – designated a terrorist group by Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States – claimed responsibility for an attack targeting Chinese nationals near Pakistan’s largest airport.

CHINESE KILLED

The Chinese embassy in Pakistan said at least two of its citizens were killed and a third injured after their convoy was targeted with an improvised explosive device believed to have been detonated by a suicide bomber.

Local media reports suggest at least ten people were injured in total, with four cars destroyed in the explosion and 10 more vehicles damaged in the resulting fire.

Thousands of Chinese nationals work in Pakistan, many of whom are involved in Beijing’s multibillion-dollar infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative.

Earlier, the BLA, which pushes for an independent Balochistan, was blamed for multiple attacks in August that killed more than 50 people. Pakistani authorities reportedly responded by killing 21 insurgents in the province.

The latest attack on the miners drew condemnation from Balochistan’s chief minister, Sarfraz Bugti, who said the attackers had an agenda to destabilize Pakistan.

“The terrorists have once again targeted poor labrers… the killing of these innocent laborers will be avenged,” Bugti warned.

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