QUETTA, Nov 2: Seven people were killed and 15 others injured when two powerful landmines exploded in Nelegh area near Sui in Dera Bugti district on Friday.
“Five persons were killed on the spot when a wagon blew up after hitting a landmine,” a senior police officer said.
According to sources, the passenger wagon going to Nelegh from Sui town hit the landmine, some 35 km off Sui.
“The wagon was blown up and five people were killed and 13 others injured,” police said, adding that all the victims were going home after buying goods in the Sui Bazaar.
Soon after the incident, police and personnel of other law-enforcement agencies rushed to the area and removed the injured and the bodies to the Sui hospital where one of the injured died.
Hospital sources said that the condition of four other injured was serious and they were being shifted to a hospital in Rahimyar Khan.
Five of the victims were identified as Ali Hasan, Abdul Majeed, Haibat Khan, Uraz Mohammad and Abdul Rahim.
The sources said a child was killed and his parents were seriously injured in another landmine explosion in the same area. Karim Bakhsh was on his way home in Nelegh area when his son stepped over an anti-personnel mine which exploded.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of a militant organisation, Sarbaz Baloch claimed that four supporters of the government were killed in a landmine blast. According to him these pro-government Balochs came to rescue their men from Neelagh area who were injured in the overnight clashes.
Sarbaz Baloch claimed that Baloch militants clashed with the security forces in Pirkoh area of Sui where three security personnel were killed. Similarly, he claimed that three vehicles working on a development project in the Pat Feeder area were set on fire and a check-post was also set afire in the Neelagh area after a clash with the pro-government tribesmen and security forces.
Sarbaz Baloch said two security personnel were injured in Gandoi area of Dera Bugti in a landmine explosion the previous night.
Police official Fida Hussain Baloch, when contacted, said he had no confirmation of any other landmine explosion, and denied the claims made by the spokesman of the militant organisation. He said there was information that paramilitary forces and militants had clashed in Kahan area of Kohlu district but there was no loss of live.
Contrary to the government claims, militants are still active in this gas-rich area of Balochistan where government launched a military operation in December 2005 against the militants. The operation was apparently started to clean the militant's camps where armed tribesmen were trained to attack the gas pipelines and other government installations.
Nawab Akbar Bugti was also killed during this operation on August 26, 2006. Government claimed that militant camps were cleaned and most of the armed tribesmen either surrendered or were killed in the operation. However, the incidents of violence still continue in these two districts of Balochistan.
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