ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Officials abducted and killed at least 11 coal miners in southwestern Pakistan. All the victims were ethnic Hazaras, a minority Shiite group that was often targeted by Sunni extremists.
Another four miners were injured and undergoing medical treatment, officials said.
Officials said the events took place in Machh, a small mining town in Baluchistan province, about 30 kilometers east of Quetta, the provincial capital. They said the attackers blindfolded the miners, tied their hands behind their backs and fired at close range. Most of the victims’ throats were also chopped off. The bodies were found early Sunday.
“Their front clothes were almost blood-stained,” Ali Raza, a Hazara activist who received the bodies in Quetta, said in a telephone interview. “Bruises on corpses also suggest they were dragged.”
Mir Ziaullah Langau, the interior minister for Baluchistan province, said security forces were on their guard and were looking for the attackers.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. But the Hazaras have long lived in a state of perpetual fear and have faced repeated attacks by Sunni extremists over the years. In Baluchistan, these assaults are often carried out by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a fanatical group that considers Shiites to be heretics.
The Hazaras are a Persian-speaking people who emigrated from neighboring Afghanistan more than a century ago and mostly live in two fortified enclaves in Quetta. Local officials estimate their population at 500,000.
As news of the killings spread through the community on Sunday, Hazaras took to the streets in protest, blocking a highway near Quetta. The bodies were placed on the road while protesters called on the government and security forces to keep promises to ensure their safety.
“This is an attempt to sabotage peace in the province and to provoke sectarian disputes,” said Haji Jawad, a local leader in Hazara, referring to the killings. “We call on the government to bring perpetrators to justice immediately.”
Premier Imran Khan condemns the violence in a Twitter postand called the attacks “another cowardly inhuman act of terrorism”. He said he had instructed local security forces to ‘use all resources to catch these killers’, and that the families affected by this would be cared for.
The southwestern province of Baluchistan is the largest and poorest region of Pakistan, full of ethnic, sectarian and separatist insurgency. It borders both Iran and Afghanistan, and although sparsely populated, it is rich in minerals and natural resources, including copper, gold and natural gas.
Locals have long complained that a fair share of the wealth generated by these resources is being denied, and separatists have been pursuing a low-intensity insurgency and demanding freedom from the federal government for decades. Pakistani officials say the separatist groups have the backing of India, the country’s biggest rival.
The Taliban also maintained shrines in some parts of the province near the border with Afghanistan.
Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud contribution made.