Abductors kill seven coal miners near Quetta

Miners were abducted on July 7 in Soorang, their bullet-ridden bodies were dumped in hills of nearby Degari.

QUETTA: Police on Thursday found the bodies of seven coal miners who were kidnapped last week in the Soorang area of Balochistan, officials said.

“The miners were abducted on July 7 in the Soorang area, 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of the provincial capital Quetta, and their bullet-ridden bodies were found dumped on a roadside in the hills of nearby Degari,” administration official Zafar Bokhari told AFP.

The Balochistan Liberation Army, which is fighting for independence from the federal government, had claimed responsibility for their kidnapping but there was no claim for their deaths, Bokhari said.

The miners were from the Swat valley, which is part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he added.

Local police said the miners had been shot dead overnight.

Baloch rebels rose up in 2004, demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the oil, gas and mineral resources in the province, which is one of the most neglected parts of Pakistan.

On Wednesday, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had accused paramilitary forces of involvement in a third of all disappearances in Balochistan, where the military has been accused of rights violations in its bid to put down the insurgency.