Balochistan law and order: Kidnappers free six irrigation officials

QUETTA:

Baloch militants have freed all six officials of the Irrigation department in Balnagor area of Dasht in Kech district in the early hours of Friday.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Deputy Commissioner Kech Mohammed Mumtaz confirmed that the kidnappers have freed all six officials from captivity. “Armed men had abducted six officials, including an assistant engineer, supervisors and their driver from the site of an under-construction dam in Pasni town of Gwadar district,” Mumtaz said. “The kidnappers freed four officials in the early hours of Friday in Dasht area of Kech, while two were released in Gwadar the previous day,” he said.

They were kidnapped on February 2. The militants also torched the machinery of a crushing plant at a construction site in Pasni, Gwadar. The banned Baloch Republican Army (BRA) claimed responsibility for the attack and kidnappings.

Official sources in Makran division said the construction work in Shadi Khor dam was suspended after the deadly attack. Earlier, militants had kidnapped a government contractor and his driver from the construction site. “The construction work on the dam was suspended due to lack of security in the area,” an official said. The machineries and vehicles were shifted from the construction site on Thursday.

Gwadar and Kech are worst off among the militancy-hit districts where Baloch militants often target security forces and government installations.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2015.