Gunmen kill 21 miners in attack in southwestern Pakistan…

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen killed 21 miners and wounded six others in southwestern Pakistan, a police official said Friday, drawing condemnation from authorities as a search continued for the attackers.

The latest attack in the restive province of Balochistan came just days before a major security summit in the capital.

The gunmen stormed the accommodation at a coal mine in Duki district late Thursday evening, rounded up the men and opened fire, police official Hamayun Khan Nasir said. He said the attackers also fired rockets, threw grenades at the mine and damaged machinery before fleeing.

Most of the victims came from Pashto-speaking areas of Balochistan. Three of the dead and four of the injured were Afghan. Angered by the violence, local shop owners pulled down their shutters to witness a day-long strike against the killings.

One of the seriously injured miners later died in a hospital, bringing the death toll to 21, Nasir said. However, he said the families of the slain miners refused to bury them for hours and staged a sit-in at the site of the attack in Duki.

According to Islamic tradition, funerals take place as soon as possible after death, but before the protests ended, demonstrators insisted they would not hold funerals until authorities arrested the killers, Nasir said.

No group has claimed direct responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, which has targeted civilians and security forces.

The province is home to several separatist groups seeking independence. They accuse the federal government in Islamabad of unfairly exploiting oil and mineral-rich Balochistan at the expense of the local population.

Foreign investors, many from China, have pumped billions of dollars of investment into Balochistan, but separatists say little of the development profits are reaching the local region.

The BLA launched several attacks in August that killed more than 50 people. They included 23 people, mostly from the eastern province of Punjab, who were fatally shot after being taken from buses, vehicles and trucks in Balochistan’s Musakhail district. Authorities responded by killing 21 insurgents in the province.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed deep sorrow over the coal mine killings and vowed to eradicate terrorism.

Sarfraz Bugti, the Prime Minister of Balochistan, said that “terrorists have once again targeted poor workers.” He said the attackers were brutal and had an agenda to destabilize Pakistan. “The murder of these innocent workers will be avenged,” he said in a speech. statement.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said those who killed the workers would not be able to escape the clutches of the law.

On Monday, the BLA said it had carried out an attack on Chinese nationals outside Pakistan’s largest airport. Security officials said the bodies of the two slain Chinese engineers were sent to Beijing by plane on Thursday evening.

Thousands of Chinese work in the country, most of whom are involved in Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.

Two suspects linked to a 2021 bomb attack that killed nine Chinese nationals and four Pakistanis working on a dam in the northwest were killed in eastern Pakistan on Friday, counter-terrorism police said.

Police said the suspects were killed when armed men attacked a van carrying the suspects to a jail in Sahiwal district of Punjab province. No officers were injured in the gunfight, the counter-terrorism police statement said.

Sunday’s airport explosion, which the BLA said was the work of a suicide bomber, has raised questions about the ability of Pakistan’s armed forces to protect high-profile events or foreigners in the country.

Islamabad next week will host a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a group set up by China and Russia to counter Western alliances.

Authorities have increased security in the capital by deploying troops.

The Interior Ministry warned provinces this week to take additional measures as separatists and the Pakistani Taliban could attack public places and government installations.

The killings of the miners came hours after Saudi and Pakistani businessmen signed 27 investment deals worth $2 billion in various sectors, including mining in Balochistan.

Saudi Arabia is also looking to invest in Reko Diq, a district in Balochistan famous for its mineral resources, including gold and copper.

Balochistan’s Gwadar port is an anchor in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, part of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative. The BLA has asked Chinese workers to leave the province to avoid attacks.

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Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this story from Islamabad.