Surging violence: DSP, guard slain in Quetta attack

Four wounded in grenade attack on NADRA office in Kharan.

QUETTA: Masked gunmen shot dead on Monday a senior police officer and his security guard in the Essa Nagri neighbourhood of the provincial capital.

“Amir Muhammad Dasti, the deputy superintendent of police (DSP), was driving home when masked gunmen riding a motorcycle fired a volley of bullets at his car at Golimar Chowk near Essa Nagri,” Brewery police station SHO Allah Ditta told The Express Tribune.

DSP Dasti and his security guard – identified as Aftab Ahmed – were critically wounded. They were driven to the nearby Bolan Medical Teaching Hospital where they died.

City police chief Mir Zubair Ahmed said that DSP Dasti had led several operations against criminals and sectarian militants. “A manhunt has been launched for the killers,” he told the media. “We will soon find a clue to the culprits.”

Balochistan has been in the grip of a low-key insurgency since 2004 with sectarian extremists also mounting deadly attacks in recent months. No group immediately claimed responsibility for DSP Dasti’s killing. Many senior police officers have been killed in targeted attacks by sectarian terrorists and analysts believe Monday’s killing could also be a part of this violence.

Caretaker Chief Minister Nawab Ghous Bakhsh Barozai condemned the killing and announced Rs3 million in compensation for Dasti’s heirs.

In other acts of violence, four people were wounded when unidentified men threw a hand-grenade into NADRA office in Kharan district. The men riding a motorcycle lobbed the hand grenade in the NADRA office and drove away. The injured were shifted to hospital where medics said their wounds were not life-threatening.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2013.