QUETTA, Aug 1: An employee of the Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC) was killed and 12 others injured in a rocket attack by unknown men near Barkhan, some 240 miles north-east of here on Friday.

A senior police officer told Dawn that rockets were fired in the early hours of morning from the northern side of the mountains with brief intervals.

“The OGDC employees were sleeping when rockets exploded in a camp,” sources said.

Soon after the attack stopped, officials of the local administration and law enforcement agencies rushed to the site where the incident had taken place and took all the injured men to Multan for treatment. However, one of them who had received head injuries and was identified as Shah Bukhsh died before reaching the hospital.

“Condition of three injured who were identified as Mumtaz Hussain, Abdul Khaliq and Gulistan Shah is serious,” Mushtaq Ahmed, an office bearer of the OGDC employees union said.

Sources said that another rocket exploded near district jail Barkhan, slightly damaging one of the jail’s walls.

Law enforcement agencies deployed in the area retaliated and returned fire. After half-an-hour exchange of fire the outlaws escaped in the mountains.

A few years ago, the OGDC was allotted Barkhan area for conducting survey in order to explore oil and gas resources. However, the corporation stopped working due to various reasons, including lack of security.

Last month, after assurances given by the elders of the area, the corporation resumed work in the region. With the new attacks on their camp the OGDC employees have once again stopped working.