By Staff Reporter
QUETTA: Armed men abducted 14 workers from a government construction project and a crushing plant in two separate incidents in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, police said on Sunday, prompting security forces to launch search operations in the remote areas.
In the first attack, assailants raided a construction company camp in the Mula area, about 60 km (37 miles) from Khuzdar district headquarters, and kidnapped 11 workers, including the project manager, a senior police officer said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said six of the labourers were from neighbouring Sindh province, while the other five were residents of Khuzdar and surrounding areas in Balochistan.
He identified six of the abducted men as project manager Gul Sher, Ghulam Sarwar, Abdul Malik Bugti, Maulana Bakhsh, Muhammad Irfan and Ikhtiar. The attackers also tried to seize arms and ammunition from a nearby police station, but officers resisted, forcing the gunmen to flee, the official added.
Security forces arrived at the scene after receiving reports of the incident and initiated a search operation, but no arrests had been made, and none of the workers had been recovered more than 24 hours later.
In a second incident in Barkhan district, more than 30 armed men stormed a crushing plant in the Dhola Nadi area and kidnapped three workers after damaging the facility, officials said. “Armed men abducted three labourers working at the crushing plant in Musakhail area,” Barkhan deputy commissioner Abdullah Khosa said, confirming that the assailants had vandalised the plant. The attackers also took three police personnel posted at a nearby check post, along with their weapons, Khosa said. Barkhan’s senior superintendent of police, Dr Saad Afridi, said a search operation was ongoing in the mountainous terrain and expressed confidence that the workers would be recovered soon.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by area but its poorest, has long been plagued by a low-level insurgency by separatist groups demanding greater autonomy or independence, as well as attacks by Islamist militants. Kidnappings for ransom and assaults on infrastructure projects are common in the region, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, though no group immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s incidents. Police in both districts have stepped up patrols and checkpoints in response, but the rugged landscape often hampers efforts to track down militants in such attacks.
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