QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen killed 20 miners and wounded another seven in Pakistan’s southwest, a police official said Friday, drawing condemnation from authorities who have ordered police to trace and arrest those who are behind the killings.
It’s the latest attack in restive Balochistan province and comes days ahead of a major security summit being hosted in the capital.
Police official Hamayun Khan Nasir said the gunmen stormed the accommodations at the coal mine in Duki district late Thursday night, rounded up the men and opened fire.
Most of the men were from Pashtun-speaking areas of Balochistan. Three of the dead and four of the wounded were Afghan.
No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, but the suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, which often targets civilians and security forces.
The group committed multiple attacks in August that killed more than 50 people, while authorities responded by killing 21 insurgents in the province. Those killed included 23 passengers, mostly from eastern Punjab province, who were fatally shot after being taken from buses, vehicles and trucks in Musakhail district in Baluchistan.
The latest attack drew a strong condemnation from the country’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister in Balochistan, who said the “terrorists have once again targeted poor laborers.”
He said the attackers were cruel and had an agenda to destabilize Pakistan. “The killing of these innocent laborers would be avenged,” he said in a statement.
Naqvi also said those who killed the laborers would not be able to escape from the grip of the law.
The province is home to several separatist groups who want independence. They accuse the federal government in Islamabad of unfairly exploiting oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan at the expense of locals.
On Monday, a group called the Baloch Liberation Army said it carried out an attack on Chinese nationals outside Pakistan’s biggest airport. There are thousands of Chinese working in the country, most of them involved in Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.
The explosion, which the BLA said was the work of a suicide bomber, also raised questions about the ability of Pakistani forces to protect high-profile events or foreigners in the country.
Islamabad is hosting a summit next week of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a grouping founded by China and Russia to counter Western alliances.
Authorities have beefed up security in the capital by deploying troops to prevent any acts of terrorism.
The Ministry of Interior this week had alerted the country’s four provinces to take additional measures to enhance security as the separatist groups and Pakistani Taliban could launch attacks at public places and government installation.
The killings of miners came hours Saudi and Pakistani businessmen signed 27 memorandums of understanding valued at $2 billion for investment across various sectors, including mining in oil and gas rich Balochistan. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended the signing of the memorandums in the capital, Islamabad.
Saudi Arabia also wants to invest in Reko Diq, district in Balochistan which famed for its mineral wealth, including gold and copper. Baluchistan’s Gwardar port is an anchor in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, part of Beijing’s vast Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, and BLA has asked the Chinese to leave the province to avoid attacks.
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Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this story from Islamabad.
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