Mastung massacre perpetrators killed in gunfight

Home minister confirms Dr Allah Nazar’s deputy, BLA commander Ashraf among the five killed

QUETTA: Five members of outlawed Baloch separatist groups involved in last year’s grisly massacre of day labourers in Mastung have been killed in a gunfight with Frontier Corps troops, the paramilitary force claimed on Saturday.

The slain insurgents belonged to the Baloch Liberation Army and Balochistan Liberation Front, including BLA’s notorious commander Ashraf and BLF leader Dr Mannan Baloch.

They had masterminded the May 2015 execution-style of 23 passengers of a Punjab-bound bus in Mastung district. The victims were all labourers and belonged to different districts of Punjab.

According to Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti, Dr Mannan Baloch was the second-in-command of BLF. And he was running the banned separatist group after its head honcho, Dr Allah Nazar Baloch, was killed by security forces last year.

“I confirm that Dr Mannan Baloch, who was also general secretary of the Balochistan National Movement (BNM), was killed during a shootout with the FC,” Bugti told a news briefing in Quetta.

As a political entity, the BNM has protested against the killing of its leader.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the paramilitary FC said that on receiving intelligence reports about the presence of the perpetrators of the Mastung massacre in the Killi Dattu area of Mastung, FC’s top officials ordered a well-planned operation. “A contingent of FC, along with back-up from law enforcement agencies, launched a search operation in the area,” he said.

The insurgents instead of surrendering opened fire on the paramilitary troops. In the ensuing firefight, the FC soldiers shot dead five insurgents, he added. Apart from arms and ammunition, the paramilitary troops also recovered communication equipment and anti-Pakistan literature from the insurgents’ hideout.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2016.