DERA BUGTI: As many as seven people were killed and four others sustained injuries in a firing incident followed by a landmine explosion on Thursday morning in Toba Nokhani area of Balochistan’s Dera Bugti district.
According to levies sources, six people of a family were killed and two others sustained gunshot injuries when unidentified armed men stormed a house in the area and opened indiscriminate fire.
The house belonged to a person who has been identified as Gujjar. His two wives and three children were killed as result of the attack.
Subsequently, a landmine explosion took place when a vehicle was shifting the dead and injured to a hospital, killing the driver on the spot, the paramilitary sources said.
Shortly after the explosion, Levies and Frontier Corps personnel reached the site and began investigating the incident.
The identities of dead and injured could not be ascertained immediately.
So far, no militant group has claimed the responsibility for the attack.
Separately, two terrorists were killed and weapons seized from their possession during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) by security forces in in Tump area Turbat district.
Several militant groups operate in the province, which shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran. A US drone strike killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour last year in Balochistan.
The province was rocked by a series of attacks late last year that claimed over 180 lives and raised concerns about a growing nationalist and religious militant presence, including fighters affiliated with Islamic State, which has claimed several bombings in Balochistan.
Published in Daily Times, December 22nd 2017.
