Gunmen kill at least 20 miners in Pakistan

Gunmen have killed at least 20 people at a coal mine in Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan, according to local police.

The attackers stormed the workers’ accommodation at the Junaid Coal Company mines in the province’s Duki district in the early hours of Friday morning, rounded the men up and opened fire.

A hospital in Duki has received 20 bodies and is treating six injured people, reported Reuters.

The workers were attacked with heavy weapons, including rocket launchers and grenades, police said, while one survivor described seeing a drone overhead.

Subcontractor Hafeezullah told the BBC he spotted the drone and its red light as he and a number of others hid in the bathroom.

“When the attackers got closer they shouted ‘we told you to stop work here, why didn’t you?’,” he told the BBC. He said the attackers spoke in Pashto. “Then they opened fire.”

Hafeezullah estimates the attack, which he says started just after midnight, lasted for about an hour and a half, during which time machinery was set alight. He also heard loud explosions, which he thinks were grenades exploding.

Asim Shafi, police chief in Duki district, confirmed to news agency AFP both hand grenades and rocket launchers were used in the attack, which is believed to have been carried out by as many as 40 people who then disappeared “into the night”.

Police confirmed that four of the victims were Afghans, while the rest of the men were from Pashto-speaking areas of Balochistan.

Hafeezullah says he lost several friends in the attack.

“When I left, there were people lying on the ground,” he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killings so far. In the past, the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has carried out several deadly attacks in the province.

Mine owner Khairullah Nasar told news agency Reuters they had been getting “threats from the militants for some time, but there was no information about the attack”.

Friday’s attack is the latest to be carried out in recent days, and comes just ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a major security summit being hosted in the Pakistani capital Islamabad next week.

On Monday, a BLA militant killed two Chinese nationals and injured at least 10 people in a suicide attack near Karachi airport.

The group, which pushes for an independent Balochistan, also committed multiple attacks in August that killed more than 50 people. Pakistani authorities responded by killing 21 insurgents in the province.

The latest attack on the miners drew condemnation from Balochistan’s chief minister Sarfraz Bugti, who said the attackers had an agenda to destabilise Pakistan.

“The terrorists have once again targeted poor labourers… the killing of these innocent laborers will be avenged,” he said in a statement.

Balochistan is home to several separatist groups, who accuse the central government of exploiting the resource-rich province.

The militants often target security forces, as well as people who have come to work at the province’s many mining and infrastructure projects.

As well as enhancing security measures, Pakistani authorities will reportedly be curbing movements of Chinese citizens during the summit, due to the security risk from militant groups targeting them.