Ripples of terror: Balochistan rocked by another dead leader’s body, blasts

Explosion kills two children and attack on check post claims lives of two security personnel.

QUETTA:

The inferno in Balochistan intensified on Monday. As the flames leapt higher, more bodies were discovered and explosions continued to claim innocent lives.

The day began with the discovery of a body dumped near Turbat – mutilated and shot 30 times in the head and chest.

The body was of Baloch Republican Party (BRP) leader Sangat Sana – missing since December 8, 2008. Sangat had been whisked away from the Kolpur area in Bolan.

More horrors would follow.

A remote-controlled explosion on a motorcycle ripped through a security checkpoint in Dera Murad Jamali later in the day. Security personnel escaped with their lives, but two children were killed.

Security personnel, however, would not escape another attack – this time near Chattar in Nasirabad district. Two personnel of the Balochistan Constabulary (BC) were killed and two others sustained injuries when a group of armed men ambushed a check post.

Later, almost as if to even things out, yet another ‘missing’ person’s body was found near Mand.

Sana’s body

Official sources said that Sana’s body was found near Murgab by some passers-by, who informed the nearby Levies station. The body was shifted to the Turbat District Headquarters Hospital, where locals identified the deceased.

“The victim received over 30 bullets on his chest and hands,” an official of the Turbat police revealed.

Balochistan Levies said they have launched an investigation into the incident. But clearly Sana’s family don’t buy into it. Sana’s father has joined the hunger strike underway outside the Karachi Press Club.

Meanwhile, another missing person’s body was found near the Mand area by the region’s Levies force on a tip-off. The body was identified as Zardad, son of Akbar Khan, a resident of Kohistan, who was a fund collector for local religious seminaries in Mand.

In the aftermath of Sana’s killing, the BRP, Baloch National Movement (BNM) and Baloch Students Organisation announced a three-day shutterdown strike and a four-day mourning period in protest.

Explosion, check post attack

Official security sources said that unidentified persons fitted explosives on a motorcycle and parked it at the main road near Bakra Mandi in Dera Murad Jamali. The device was detonated when a police patrol van passed by the area.

As a result, two children walking in the area, reportedly aged between 10 to 12 years, died on the spot. The police vehicle was also destroyed in the attack. “It was a remote-controlled blast and police have launched a manhunt in the area,” a senior police official stated.

The Baloch Republican Army, a banned militant outfit, claimed the responsibility for the attack. A spokesperson of the BRA, who identified himself as Sarbaz Baloch, called reporters from an undisclosed location and said that the organisation had planted the remote control device.

DM Jamali police said the target of the attack was the police van that was patrolling the area and investigations have been launched.

In the other incident, near Chattar in Nasirabad district two personnel of the BC were killed and two others sustained injuries when a group of armed men ambushed a check post.

According to officials, a group of men armed with automatic weapons encircled a check post set up by the BC in the Shahenshah Kundi area and opened fire at the personnel manning the check post.

As a result, BC Sub-Inspector Wahid Bhaksh and Constable Baddar Uddin received multiple bullet wounds and died on the spot while two others were critically wounded. There was no report of causalities on the part of the attackers. No group had claimed responsibility for this attack till this report was filed.

(Read: Saving Balochistan)

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2012.