Four police officials shot dead in Quetta

PM Nawaz says such incidents cannot weaken govt's resolve in eliminating menace of terrorism, extremism

QUETTA: At least four police officials were shot dead on Saturday in Quetta's Pashtoonabad area.


Capital City Police Officer Quetta Abdul Razzaq confirmed the death of the four policemen after unidentified assailants open fired on a police van at Mullah Abdul Salam area.

The miscreants fled the scene soon after the attack. Ali Muhammad, Abdullah and Attaullah were among the four killed, according to police.

Another senior police official Aitzaz Goraya confirmed the incident and said it was an act of terrorism.

Read: Police official injured in DI Khan blast

A heavy contingent of Frontier Corps and police arrived at the site and the deceased were shifted to Combined Military Hospital.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a statement "strongly condemned" the killings and said "such incidents cannot weaken [the] government's resolve in eliminating the menace of terrorism and extremism." He directed the concerned authorities to apprehend the perpetrators of this heinous crime at the earliest.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but Baloch separatist groups demanding more autonomy and control over province's gas and mineral resources have frequently targeted security forces and police for years. The province is also riven by sectarian strife and militant violence.

Separately, a house located in Kalli Deeba area of Quetta also came under a hand grenade attack. The security forces confirmed no damage was caused in the attack.

Recently, a multi-party confab had concurred that the methodical slaying of 20-odd Pashtuns in the restive Mastung district was an abortive attempt by the ‘enemies of Pakistan’ to sow ethnic discord in Balochistan.

Read: Mastung massacre: Enemy wants to sow ethnic discord, says PM 

On May 29, gunmen had plucked ethnic Pashtun passengers from two Karachi-bound buses in the Khad Khocha area of Mastung and shot them dead execution-style. Though the main Baloch insurgent groups distanced themselves from the carnage, the United Baloch Army, a breakaway faction of Baloch Liberation Army, claimed credit for the grisly violence.

“The enemy wants to sabotage the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. A neighbouring country has already voiced its reservations,” PM Nawaz told an all-party conference (APC) at the Governor House in Quetta. The session was convened to devise a strategy to tackle internal and external security challenges in the volatile province.