Balochistan: Gunmen killed 20 miners and wounded another seven in Pakistan’s southwest, a police official said on Friday (October 11, 2024). It’s the latest attack in the restive Balochistan province and comes days ahead of a major security summit being hosted in the capital.
Drawing condemnation from authorities who have ordered police to trace and arrest those who are behind the killings, 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.
The attack comes just days before the high-profile Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, chaired by Pakistan, which is set to take place in Islamabad on October 16 and 17. Various heads of state, including Chinese Premier Li Qiang, are expected to attend.
Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar is slated to visit Pakistan for the SCO summit on October 15, marking his first trip to the country. This will also be the first visit by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan in nearly nine years, with Sushma Swaraj being the last to visit in December 2015.
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