Khuzdar Firing: Six including 5 soldiers Shot Down
Pakistan Times Monitoring Desk

QUETTA: Six persons including five soldiers were gunned down on Sunday at Khuzdar, the former headquarters of Kalat division, by some unidentified miscreants.

The deceased were going to the town in a van from Khuzdar cantonment. The miscreants on motor cycles fired shots with automatic weapons targeting the Toyota Hilux passengers and also threw grenade on them resulting in the death of five soldiers and civilian driver while two other persons were seriously wounded. They were rushed to CMH hospital at Khuzdar.

'Close Watch'

According to a press release of District Nazim Sardar Mohammed Aslam Bizenjo, the incident took place between 0900 and 0930 hrs.

It appears that the terrorists were keeping close watch on the movement of soldiers in the area and made them target of their heinous crime.

Law enforcing agencies, in search of the terrorists, cordoned off the town and blocked the incoming and outgoing traffic on the main highway.

CM gives 36 Hrs to Arrest Culprits

The Chief Minister of Balochistan, Jam Muhammad Yousuf, has ordered the law enforcing agencies to apprehend the terrorists without any loss of time and gave them 36 hours to arrest the culprits.

Answering a query regarding the incident he said, some clues have been found, however, it was difficult to ascertain real cause right now. It purely seems to be a terrorist activity solely aiming at killing the innocent people.

Target

To a question he said, the target of the terrorists were not security personnel. Two civilians were also injured in the incident, he added.

The situation in the province is tense as the nationalist elements, inside and outside assembly, aver to the implementation of mega projects which, they believed, would disturbs the ethnic balance to the disadvantage of their political hold, whereas, the administration has repeatedly assured that their interests would be fully safeguarded and the local people would be absorbed in these projects. Their apprehensions are ill-founded according to administration.

Of Political Observers

The political observers point out that devolution plan has also adversely affected the law and order situation in the province. The devolution plan is good in theory but its application to Balochistan tribal society would be counter-productive at this stage to achieve the objectives as Balochistan got the status of province 35 years ago.

Therefore, yardstick applied to the other senior provinces are not justified to enforce in this province which needs more time to achieve maturity to play its role in the mainstream of the national affairs.

ISPR Confirms

Military spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan has also confirmed that the incident of firing on a civilian vehicle occurred, in which five personnel of security forces and a civilian were martyred while two others wounded.

BLA Takes Responsibility

Meanwhile, in a new development Balochistan Liberation Army on Sunday in telephonic calls to various media outlets claimed the responsibility of killing five military personnel and their civilian driver in an attack in Khuzdar.

A man told his name Azad Baloch and claimed himself spokesman for BLA, telephoned to various media organizations and claimed the responsibility.

The same, BLA has claimed the responsibility of various rocket attacks and bomb blasts at different places in Balochistan.●