QUETTA: A senior police officer was abducted and killed while six laborers from Pakistan’s Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces were kidnapped in separate attacks in Balochistan, officials said on Tuesday, the latest in a string of targeted assaults underscoring deteriorating security in the insurgency-hit southwestern province.
The attacks come less than a week after unidentified gunmen ambushed and killed a district judge in Mastung, highlighting an escalation in attacks targeting security officials, government representatives and workers from other provinces in Pakistan’s largest but least populous province.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mureed Bugti was traveling from Rakhni to Barkhan in his private vehicle when unidentified armed men intercepted the vehicle, abducted him and his gunman, and later shot the officer dead, according to provincial authorities.
“Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Barkhan Mureed Bugti was later shot dead while his gunman was injured,” Babar Yousafzai, an aide to the Balochistan home department, told Arab News.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said security forces had launched a search operation in the mountainous Rakhni area to hunt down those responsible.
“Action against terrorist elements is being carried out with full force,” the chief minister said in a statement. “Indiscriminate actions will continue against elements hostile to peace.”
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a separate incident late Monday, armed men blocked a road in the Klatuk area, about 32 kilometers (20 miles) from Turbat in Kech district, killing one laborer and abducting six others.
Ibrahim Baloch, station house officer of Sadar Police Station in Turbat, said the victims were from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“One laborer who was from Swabi district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was killed on the spot while six others, four from Punjab and two from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, were kidnapped,” he told Arab News.
“Police and other law enforcement agencies have launched a joint search operation for the safe recovery of the abducted laborers.”
The latest attacks follow the killing of District and Sessions Judge Abdul Hakeem Kakar and his security guard in Mastung o earlier this month, when gunmen ambushed their vehicle as they traveled to court. No group claimed responsibility, though suspicion fell on separatist militants, particularly the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which has intensified attacks across the province in recent months.
Separatist groups, including the BLA, have increasingly targeted members of the security forces, government officials and laborers from Punjab and other parts of Pakistan, accusing them of representing the federal state’s interests in resource-rich Balochistan.
The latest attacks come despite an ongoing security offensive launched by Pakistani forces in early July under Operation Shaban, aimed at dismantling militant networks across Balochistan. Authorities say 143 militants have been killed since the operation began, while intelligence-based operations against armed groups continue across the province.
Authorities also imposed a three-day curfew across Nushki district on Tuesday following an attack on a security forces checkpoint, while an indefinite curfew remains in parts of Mastung district after repeated militant attacks on travelers and security personnel along the Quetta-Karachi highway.
