20 Pakistan coal miners shot dead in attack

AFP | Quetta                                            

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Twenty coal miners were shot dead in an overnight attack on their lodgings by a group of heavily armed men in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, police said yesterday.

No group has claimed the attack, but separatist militants in Balochistan regularly target natural resource extraction projects dotted across the mineral-rich province, which is the poorest in Pakistan.

Up to 40 attackers fired at miners for half an hour starting around 12:30 am (1930 GMT Thursday) “before escaping into the night”, said Asim Shafi, police chief in Duki district, where the attack occurred. “They had rocket launchers and hand grenades with them,” he told AFP.

A senior government official in the district, Kaleemullah Kakar, confirmed the death toll and said seven more people had been wounded.

“The attackers also set fire to the machinery on-site,” he said. Yesterday, the workers’ coffins were laid out in a public square where hundreds of protesting union and labour group members demanded better protection amid a rise in violence.

“We are protesting here for our protection as terrorists always attack mine workers and coal-loaded vehicles and law enforcement agencies fail to provide protection,” said Mohammad Ghous, 36, from a neighbouring district who joined the protest.