QUETTA: Three members of Pakistan’s Coast Guards paramilitary force were killed in a separatist attack in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, a police official said on Sunday.
The troops were killed after their patrol boat came under attack in Jiwani, a coastal town located some 84 kilometers from Pakistan’s Gwadar port, according to a senior police official who requested anonymity.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent of ethnic separatist group in the restive region, claimed responsibility for the attack. While the separatists have targeted security forces on ground, the attack on a patrol boat has been a rarity in the insurgency-hit region.
“Three members of the Pakistani Coast Guard force were killed in the attack,” the senior police official, posted in Gwadar, told Arab News.
“Security in the area is on high alert and investigation is ongoing,” he added, without sharing further details about how the attack unfolded.
A senior Balochistan administration official confirmed the attack but did not share the details either.
Balochistan has been the site of a long-running insurgency that has intensified in recent years, with separatist and other militant groups frequently attacking security forces, government officials and interests as well as residents and people from other provinces.
In another incident, two men belonging to the Hazara Shia community were shot dead in Hazar Ganji area of the provincial capital of Quetta, said another police official who declined to be named.
“Unidentified men riding on a motorbike targeted the vegetable vendors belonging to the Hazara community early Sunday morning, killing two people and injuring three others,” the official said.
“Normally, we escort vegetable vendors belonging to the Hazara community but these people traveled without informing the police force,” he said. “The area is cordoned off by police and all stakeholders are investigating the latest sectarian killing in Quetta.”
No group claimed responsibility for the targeted killing, but sectarian militant groups like Lashkar e Jhangvi, Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan and Daesh Khorasan have previously targeted the minority community in the region.
The police official described the attack as an “attempt to spread unrest.”
Meanwhile, members of the Hazara community blocked the Western Bypass intersection for traffic to protest the killings in Quetta.
In a statement, Balochistan Home Minister Ziaullah Langove said security forces and the public were “jointly combating the menace of terrorism” in the region.
“The killers of innocent citizens won’t be spared at any cost,” he added.
