Five security personnel martyred in Turbat gun attack

Six others injured as unidentified men open fire on their vehicle

QUETTA: Five troops of paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) were martyred and six others sustained injuries when their vehicles were ambushed in Shapok area in Balochistan’s Kech district on Monday evening.

Officials said two FC vehicles, transporting soldiers from Panjgur to Turban, were attacked with automatic weapons when they were crossing the mountainous area of Shapok.

“As a result of the firing and overturning of the vehicles, five FC personnel got martyred and six others sustained injured,” said Turbat Assistant Commissioner Dr Jamil Baloch.

He said soon after the incident, the FC personnel deployed in the area rushed to the site, cordoned off the area and shifted the dead and the injured to Turbat’s district hospital.

“Four soldiers of the FC succumbed to their injuries on the spot as they received multiple bullet wounds,” said an official, adding that condition of two other soldiers was also serious.

The martyred troops were identified as Hawaldar Zakir, Lance Naik Masood, sepoy Shahbaz Qasir, sepoy Farmanullah and sepoy Masood. The injured men include Hawaldar Qambar, Asadullah, Sohail, Muhammad Bilal, Muhammad Hanif and Shafqatullah.

After the incident, security forces launched a search operation in the area and rounded up some suspects, who were shifted to some unknown location for interrogation.