Under fire: Two police officials slain in ambush

Security officials gather near a police vehicle after it was attacked by unidentified gunmen in Quetta. PHOTO AFP

A police vehicle was returning from Kirani Road after escorting some people of the Hazara community from Hazar Ganji when assailants opened fire on the vehicle, killing two police constables and injuring two others, according to a police official.

One of the survivors said the police vehicle had stopped at the kerb side when it suddenly came under a hail of bullets.

“Just as the police vehicle reached near Eastern Bypass and stopped by the side of the road, some assailants opened fire at it,” said a policeman who escaped unhurt in the attack. “The assailants were onboard a vehicle and sped away after opening indiscriminate fire,” he said.

Police and security forces reached the spot and cordoned off the area after the attack.

The deceased and the injured were shifted to Bolan Medical College Teaching Hospital. The slain police officers were identified as constables Murtaza and Sanaullah, while the injured as Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Muhammad Hussain and Constable Din Mohammad.

Police officials and their vehicles have been regularly targeted in the city since the beginning of this month. Senior police officers Shahnawaz Khan and Sub-inspector Sayed Jamal Shah were also killed in the targeted attack. “It is an incident of targeted killing and is linked with previous attacks on police officers,” a senior police officer said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2012.