Four labourers shot dead in Harnai

Four others injured; suspects flee scene after attacking labourers' camp

ISLAMABAD:

At least four labourers were killed and four others injured after miscreants opened fire on a camp in Balochistan's Harnai district on Friday night.

Police sources said the labourers were inside their camp after working on the construction of a road in the Chapar Lift area of the Harnai district when they came under attack. The attackers escaped unhurt from the spot.

Levies reportedly reached the spot and shifted the injured labourers to the district headquarters hospital in Harnai for medical treatment.

Sibi Division Commissioner Balach Aziz dispatched Levies personnel towards the area to apprehend the culprits behind the terror attack. No arrests have been made so far.

Last week, four employees of a coal mine were abducted, including two engineers, in Hanna Urak, Quetta. Police sources said employees of the Habibullah Coal Company were kidnapped on their way back from work.

Read Balochistan’s killer coal mines

A search operation was underway to ensure safe recovery of the employees, a senior administration official had told The Express Tribune requesting anonymity.

He further added that the kidnapers had shifted the employees to an undisclosed location.

Militants in the past have also targeted security forces and abducted coalminers. Sorange and Marwar, the two areas of the provincial capital house rich coal reservoirs.

At least two people were killed in a landmine explosion in Harnai, in May this year. An unidentified person had planted a landmine on the road leading towards the coal mines, the official said.

Last year, three coal miners were shot dead in the same district after unidentified armed men opened fire on them.