Three ‘settlers’ shot dead in Turbat bazaar

Armed men barge into residential quarter of a tailor in main Turbat bazaar and open indiscriminate fire on inmates.

In the latest  cycle of targeted killings, three settlers were shot dead and two others were injured in Turbat district of Balochistan on Tuesday, officials said.

Armed men barged into the residential quarter of a tailor in the main Turbat bazaar and opened indiscriminate fire on the inmates, officials told The Express Tribune. As a result, three people – identified as Akhtar, Mohin and Sabir – were killed on the spot, while two more – Muhammad Ayub and Sabir – received multiple injuries. The casualties were shifted to a nearby state-run hospital. The perpetrators managed to escape from the scene. The injured are stated to be in a stable condition.

“All the victims, tailors by profession, belonged to the Lodhran area in Punjab,” Station House Officer (SHO) of the Turbat city police station, Abdullah told The Express Tribune. He termed the attack as a targeted killing. Police mounted a manhunt for the killers, he added. The bodies were sent to their ancestral town for burial. No group has claimed the responsibility for the triple murder. However, Baloch militants have been blamed for such incidents in the past.

Separately, three people were shot dead by gunmen near Qambrani Road, in Quetta. Local police said the incident could be the result of a lingering dispute between the two sides over a plot of land.

Gunmen riding on a motorbike targeted the three men – identified as Manzoor Ahmed, Adam Khan and an unidentified man – when they were travelling in a car on Qambrani Road. The trio died on the spot, while the attackers fled the scene.

The bodies were shifted to the Bolan Medical Complex Hospital for autopsy.  “It was the result of a land dispute,” a police officer told The Express Tribune. However, he added that further investigations were under way. Police handed over the bodies to their heirs after medico-legal formalities.

Tribesmen hurt

In other violence, two tribesmen were critically wounded in a landmine explosion in Dera Bugti district.

Police sources said Nabi Dad and Alam were travelling to their farmlands when their tractor-trolley hit a landmine planted by unknown men near a Levies post. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10th, 2010.