KHAPLU, Pakistan: Gunmen attacked a security check post in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan region overnight, killing two paramilitary officials and injuring two others, police said on Friday.

The violence is the latest in an area where Chinese workers are helping to build a multibillion-dollar dam.

The attackers struck between midnight and 1 a.m. in the Hudor area of Chilas, targeting personnel of the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Scouts, a paramilitary force that also provides protection to Chinese engineers and officials at the nearby Diamer-Bhasha Dam site.

“Miscreant elements attacked a security check post of GB Scouts in Hudor area of Chilas. Two security officials were killed and one was injured in the attack,” Abdul Hameed, the district police officer (DPO), told Arab News.

“The attack was carried out between 12 to 1 am. No organization has claimed responsibility so far.”

The GB Scouts shifted the bodies and wounded to a local hospital, Hameed said, adding that a search operation was underway to track the perpetrators.

The Hudor area has witnessed repeated violence. In December 2023, gunmen opened fire on a passenger bus traveling through the Diamer district, killing at least nine people. 

Authorities at the time blamed militant elements operating in the mountainous region, which borders Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Militant groups have sporadically targeted security forces, infrastructure projects, and civilians in Gilgit-Baltistan, though attacks remain less frequent than in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt or southwestern Balochistan. 

The GB region is home to the strategic China-backed Diamer-Bhasha Dam, part of Pakistan’s efforts to expand hydropower and water storage capacity.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for Friday’s assault.