20 killed in attack on miners in Pakistan

Karachi: At least 20 miners, including from Afghanistan, were killed and eight others injured on Friday when terrorists attacked a private coal mine with rocket launchers and automatic weapons in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province.

SP Muhammad Baloch said a group of armed men attacked the Junaid Coal company in the Dukki area of the province and then escaped into the mountains.

The attack is the latest in a string of violence in Pakistan. It comes ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit to be held in the national capital.

“It was a terror attack and the workers at the mine had no chance as they were just starting to work when they came under fire,” Baloch said.

There were around 50 workers at the site and some of them escaped unhurt after running into the nearby mountains or remaining hidden deep in the mines, he added.

Some of the coal workers belonged to Afghanistan, he said.

According to District Chairman Dukki Haji Khair Ullah Nasir, the attackers used hand grenades and rocket launchers in the attack. He said that there are ten coal mines located in the area.

Nasir said that the attackers also set ablaze mining machinery before fleeing the scene.

Johar Khan Shadizai, a doctor in Dukki, said: “We have received 20 bodies and six injured so far at the district hospital.”

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. 

Police, paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) and rescue teams rushed to the spot after the attack.

Police sources said that the death toll may rise as some injured minors were in critical condition.

SHO Dukki Hamanyan Khan said the armed men first gathered the miners in different groups and then sprayed bullets on them.

Heavy contingents of police and FC have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to arrest the culprits.

Pakistan has witnessed a worrying surge in terrorist attacks in the ongoing year with fatalities in the first three quarters surpassing the numbers recorded in all of 2023.

As per the third Quarterly Report (Q3) issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), the number of fatalities rose to at least 1,534 in the first three quarters of 2024 compared to 1,523 in 2023.

Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is home to a long-running violent insurgency. Baloch insurgent groups have previously carried out several attacks targeting CPEC projects.

The banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) accuses China and Islamabad of exploitation of the resource-rich province, a charge rejected by the authorities. It has fought a long-running insurgency for a separate homeland.

Earlier this week, two Chinese nationals were killed and 17 people injured in a suicide attack by a Baloch insurgent group that targeted a convoy of Chinese workers near Pakistan’s busiest airport in Karachi.