Line of duty: Six levies men escorting Spanish cyclist shot dead

The cyclist en route to Quetta from Iran was injured in the attack in Mastung.

QUETTA:

Six personnel of the Balochistan Levies were killed and a foreign cyclist injured when they were ambushed by gunmen in Mastung district, about 45 kilometres west of Quetta on Wednesday.

One of the attackers was killed when the security forces opened retaliatory fire, while the others managed to flee.

According to Assistant Commissioner of Mastung Shafqat Shahwani, a Levies mobile was escorting a Spanish cyclist who was coming from Taftan, a town in Chagai district which shares a border with Iran, when they were attacked on the national highway in Mastung.

“The gunmen wanted to kidnap the foreigner under the cover of heavy firing,” a local official at Mastung Levies station said. Six personnel of Levies received multiple bullet wounds and died on the spot while the Spanish cyclist sustained a bullet wound.

The attackers fled from the scene after Levies personnel opened fire. “The Levies personnel died while protecting the foreigner,” Shahwani added.



The dead Levies personnel were identified as Ghulam Farooq, Abdul Wahid, Ali Baksh, Babu Noor Ahmed, Hafiz Zahoor Ahmed and Abdul Mutalib. The body of the attacker was taken into custody. However, his identity was not determined till the filing of this report.

More Levies personnel and security forces reached the spot and launched a manhunt for the gunmen in the area.

A Spanish embassy spokesman said the cyclist, whom he would not name, is safe and has been released from hospital.

Provincial Home Secretary Asad Gillani said the cyclist had undergone a full medical checkup and was now “in the custody of the provincial administration”. “We are making arrangements to send him to Islamabad by evening,” Gillani added.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Kalat Division Mohammed Akbar Arifal confirmed that the attacker was a suicide bomber. “The attacker was wearing a suicide vest and carrying a hand grenade when he was shot in head by Levies personnel,” Arifal said while talking to The Express Tribune.

The Spanish cyclist reached Mastung on Tuesday evening but refrained from proceeding towards Quetta after a suicide attack on a Shia pilgrims bus left 22 people dead.

The cyclist was coming from Iran and wanted to proceed towards Quetta. Two Czech women were kidnapped from the same route in March last year. Their whereabouts are still unknown despite the Czech government’s pleas to the Pakistan government.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2014.