Violence in Balochistan: Roadside blast kills two FC soldiers in Awaran

Key commander among three militants slain in Kohlu and Barkan

QUETTA: At least two paramilitary soldiers were killed and three others wounded in a roadside bomb attack in the volatile Awaran district of Balochistan on Saturday. Elsewhere in the province, which has been plagued by separatist, sectarian and militant violence for nearly a decade, three separatist militants were taken out by paramilitary troops.

Suspected militants remotely detonated a roadside bomb when a convoy of the Frontier Corps drove past in the Jaho area of Awaran, said a spokesperson for the paramilitary force. The blast tore through a vehicle in the convoy, killing two soldiers instantly and injuring three others.

A purported spokesman for the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Front (BLA), Gwaram Baloch, called up the NNI news agency to claim credit for the bomb attack.

In other violence, three separatist militants, among them a key commander, were killed in raids by FC troops in Kohlu and Barkan districts.

Mera Baloch, an important commander of the proscribed Baloch Republican Army (BRA), and his two associates Kareemdad and Kareemo were taken out in a search operation in the Jabar and Nasao areas of Kohlu and Barkan, said the FC spokesperson. He added that three assault rifles – including a Kalashnikov – hand grenades and one motorcycle were recovered from the hideouts of the dead militant. They were wanted in several criminal cases of kidnapping for ransom, attacks on security forces and sabotaging natural gas pipelines in the region.

Bodies recovered

The bodies of three government employees were found in Makran division 14 days after they were kidnapped, along with their colleagues, by gunmen from the Zareen Bogh area of Kech district.

The corpses have been identified as SDO Fida Hussain Baloch, Sub Engineer Muhammad Ibrahim and Sub Engineer Rahim Jan. The bodies of constructor Chakar Baloch and constructor Mehboob Baloch were found two days ago.

Kech’s DC Yaqoob Marri said the corpses were found in the mountains of Dasth Salji. “The victims were starved to death. The bodies were decomposed which is why they were buried there,” he added.

The BRA had claimed responsibility for kidnapping the government employees. Marri said that since an operation was mounted to free the kidnapped officials, the outlawed group left them in the Dasht mountains to starve and escaped.

Man shot dead

Meanwhile a man was shot dead by gunmen in the Duki area on Saturday. The man, identified as Noor Gul, was gunned down in the Loni area of Duki. The attackers escaped unchallenged – but Levies personnel reached the site on time and arrested the killer after a brief chases.

It wasn’t immediately known why Noor Gul was killed. The body was handed over to heirs after medico-legal formalities. Also in Duki, the FC detained a man and recovered weapons from his possession at a checkpoint on Saturday. The paramilitary force was tipped off about the man who was carrying an unlicensed pistol and bullets.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2016.