Seven, including FC soldier, killed

FC platoon moving towards town of Khuzdar from Surab when unknown armed gunmen opened fire.

QUETTA: Four people, including a soldier of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC), were killed, and three FC personnel, a major among them, were injured in an armed clash in the Suni area of Khuzdar district, about 300-kilometres southeast of Quetta.

According to officials, an FC platoon was moving towards the town of Khuzdar from Surab when unknown armed gunmen opened fire, killing a soldier on the spot. FC personnel retuned fire and killed three attackers on the spot.

The slain FC man was identified as Sabz Ali and the injured as Major Sohail, Naseeb and Alamdar. The injured were first shifted to the Combined Military Hospital in Khuzdar and were then shifted to Quetta for specialised treatment, where one of them is stated to be in critical condition. “The assailants attacked an FC contingent,” Murtaza Baig, FC spokesperson told The Express Tribune.

The attackers who were killed by FC personnel’s firing were later identified as Abu Bakar, Ahmed and Nabi Bakhsh. The attackers are said to be from the Pindrani area of Kalat district.

Family members of the people killed in the attack, however, accused security forces of carrying out raids and killing a number of people after taking them into custody. In another incident, three persons were killed in a firing incident in Usta Mohammad on Friday. The police attributed the incident to an “old feud”. Unidentified persons are said to have opened fire on Dad Khan, Rawath Khan and Haider, killing them instantly. The corpses were later handed over to their respective families. “This can be a case of an old enmity,” a senior officer said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2010.