Violence in Balochistan: Two people killed in NATO container attack

A station officer said that six assailants who were on a motorbike opened indiscriminate fire on the container.

QUETTA:

Gunmen killed two drivers of a Nato container carrying military hardware in a suburb of Quetta on Monday. The vehicle was en route to Afghanistan to deliver the hardware to Nato forces.

The six assailants who were on a motorbike opened indiscriminate fire on the container, said a station officer at the new Saryab police station. They then set it on fire and fled.

Police and other law enforcement agencies rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area.

The bodies of the drivers who had bullet wounds as well as burn injuries were taken to a nearby hospital.

Attacks on Nato suppliers in and around Quetta have increased in recent days, during which six Nato container and oil tankers have been torched.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

Constable and three others killed in Mastung

In a separate incident of violence in the area, a police constable was shot dead and another sustained bullet injures on Monday. The policemen were ambushed by armed men in Mastung, some 50 kilometer south of Quetta on Monday, police officials said.

Head Constable Shahnawaz and Constable Eid Mohammad were on routine patrol when assailants opened fire on them. Constable Mohammad was killed instantly while Shahnawaz sustained injuries.

Three other people were also killed in Mastung on Sunday. Officials termed the incident a case of tribal dispute and said that none of the family members of the deceased had come forward to register a case against the perpetrators of the crime.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2011.