Twenty minors were murdered on the night of Thursday, October 10 to Friday, October 11 during an attack carried out by a group of armed attackers in Balochistan, a province in the southwest of Pakistan, the police told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The victims slept in accommodations located at the mining site.
“At around 12:30 a.m., between thirty-five and forty heavily armed plainclothes men opened fire on coal mine workers for about thirty minutes before fleeing.”Asim Shafi, police chief of the Duki district where the attack took place, 225 kilometers from the provincial capital, told AFP. “They were equipped with rocket launchers and grenades”he added, although the attack has not been claimed so far. Kaleemullah Kakar, a senior district official, confirmed the death toll to AFP, adding that seven other workers were injured during the attack.
“I lay down and closed my eyes.Juma Khan, one of the survivors, tells the press agency. There were many shots and grenades. I tried to enter a room where my companions were sleeping. I saw that they were already awake. “They shot me in the left arm and I fell.”He added that the attackers also set fire to several machines at the site.
Balochistan, neighboring Afghanistan and Iran, is Pakistan’s poorest province, despite significant gas and mining resources, over which separatists claim control. Many of the extraction projects are financed and operated by foreign countries, particularly neighboring China, which is regularly attacked by armed factions, accused of hoarding wealth without sharing it with the local population.
Beijing has invested billions of dollars in Pakistan, its closest ally in the region, in recent years. But the latter had difficulties in guaranteeing the safety of Chinese personnel employed in these projects.
Armed factions regularly carry out raids
On Friday, hundreds of workers and members of local unions demonstrated next to the bodies of the victims, amid a rise in attacks against civilians in the region. On the night of Sunday, October 6 to Monday, October 7, the Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for a bomb attack targeting a convoy of vehicles in southern Karachi, which killed two Chinese workers working in a coal factory
Armed factions also regularly carry out deadly attacks against police and Pakistanis from other provinces, particularly Punjabis. They are the majority in the country and are considered dominant in the ranks of the Pakistani army, which is leading the offensive against armed groups in Balochistan.
The Balochistan Liberation Army also claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks by dozens of attackers at the end of August that left at least thirty-nine dead, one of the worst tolls in this region.
Friday’s attack comes days before Pakistan hosts a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a bloc founded by Russia and China to strengthen ties with Central Asian states, which will be attended by many heads of government. foreigners.
