Four persons were killed and one was injured in an attack by unidentified armed men in the Kharan district of Balochistan,
According to reports, on Thursday evening unknown armed men entered a house in Kharan and opened fire on the men in the house. As a result, four people were killed while one was injured. The injured man including four dead bodies was shifted to Civil hospital Kharan, where two of the deceased were identified as Shaikh Saleem Ahmed s/o Abdul Salam and Saeed Islam s/o Ameer Baksh, and the injured man was identified as Dilshad s/o Abdul Ghafoor. The identification of the two other deceased men remains unknown.
According to local sources, the persons targeted in the attack belonged to a local militia, locally known as “death squads”. Baloch nationalists and rights groups allege that these squads are formed by the Pakistani intelligence services to counter the independence movement and target pro-independence activists in Balochistan. “Sheikh Saleem was the key squad leader of Shafeeq Mengal’s death squad, who was active in enforced disappearances in Kharan and other areas of Balochistan as well,” local sources told TBP.
It should be noted that for many years Shaikh Saleem was living inside Shafeeq Mengal’s main camp in Wadh, Khuzdar. Throughout several years, Shafeeq Mengal has been accused by local and international rights groups of “running death squads in various parts of Balochistan at the behest of the Pakistan army and intelligence services.”
Police said the dead bodies will be handed over to the heirs after the procedure, while police have not said anything regarding the incident. However, such incidents have been claimed by the Baloch “pro-independence” groups in the past but this attack has not been taken by any group yet.
Source: The Balochistan Post
Baluch Sarmachar 