Violent attack: Eight security men killed in Khuzdar

Assailants destroy check post, rescue workers rush to the site.

QUETTA:

At least eight paramilitary soldiers were killed and two others wounded on Sunday when gunmen mounted a fierce attack on a check post in the Wadh tehsil of Khuzdar district.

The soldiers – drawn from the Balochistan Levies force – were targeted in the early hours of the morning by heavily armed men. The assailants lobbed hand grenades and fired a volley of bullets at the check post using automatic weapons. The officers manning the post returned fire, killing one of the attackers and injuring another.

“The check post was attacked by armed men who used up to 11 vehicles. Eight personnel of Balochistan Levies embraced martyrdom while fighting the armed men, who besieged the check post,” said Khuzdar Deputy Commissioner Waheed Shah, while talking to The Express Tribune.

Quoting one of the injured soldiers, an official said that the assailants besieged the check post and opened indiscriminate fire. “A mobile van of Balochistan Levies parked near the check post also came under attack,” he added.

Before fleeing from the site, the attackers destroyed the check post. Shortly after the deadly assault, reinforcements from the Balochistan Levies and rescue workers reached the post, located some 300 kilometres south of Quetta.

The slain officers and the wounded were shifted to the state-run hospital in Wadh, where medics referred the critically injured to District Headquarters Hospital Khuzdar for treatment.

“Those who carried out the deadly attack are known and the local administration will trace them,” a senior official said on the condition of anonymity.

“Some groups want to create a serious law and order situation,” he said. However, the official ruled out the possibility of Baloch separatist groups being involved in the attack.

A search operation has been mounted by Balochistan Levies personnel for the assailants, according to security forces.


Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2014.