Cop among 5 killed in armed attack on Shafiq Mengal's Khuzdar camp

QUETTA: Five people, including a policeman, were killed while another person was injured in an armed attack on a camp of PPP leader Mir Shafiqur Rehman Mengal in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district, police said on Wednesday.

The attack took place in the Aranji area of Khuzdar’s Wadh tehsil, near the Quetta-Karachi highway, according to Aranji Station House Officer (SHO) Abdulfateh.

Mengal, a tribal elder and head of the Jhalawan Awami Panel, was not present at the camp at the time of the attack.

The SHO said armed men riding motorbikes arrived at the area and opened fire at a security checkpost of Mengal’s camp. According to the SHO, the attackers initially killed four security guards and kidnapped the policeman. They later killed the policeman and dumped his body before fleeing the area.

The deceased were identified as Abdul Hayee, Naimatullah, Yahya, Naseer Ahmed and Constable Noor Muhammad. Obaidullah, an employee of a nearby hospital, sustained bullet injuries in the attack, SHO Abdulfateh said.

Following the incident, law enforcement agencies reached the site and shifted the bodies and the injured man to the district hospital.

A search operation was subsequently launched in the area to trace the attackers, officials said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

In July, at least 17 people, including police personnel, were killed and more than two dozen others were injured in a suicide attack at Mengal’s residence in Khuzdar.