QUETTA, April 2: Five levies personnel and five civilians were killed and 29 people were injured in four incidents of landmine explosions in Sani Shoran of Bolan district, Kohlu and Jaffarabad on Sunday. In the first incident, official sources said that a convoy of the Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) was moving to an exploration site in Sani Shoran. It was a escorted by levies personnel who were in a pick-up which hit a landmine. The resulting explosion killed six people, five of them levies personnel, on the spot and seriously injured two levies personnel. Soon after the explosion, armed men opened fire on the convoy from the nearby mountains.
The sources said that security forces rushed to the place and returned fire. The heavy exchange of fire continued for more than an hour.
“The bodies of the five levies men and a PPL employee were reduced to pieces as the pick-up was completely destroyed,” a senior official of the Bolan district administration said, adding that an anti-tank mine had been planted on the track to the PPL exploration site.
The bodies of landmine victims and the injured were taken to the Civil Hospital in Sibi. Later, one of the injured levies personnel was taken to Quetta in a helicopter.
The levies personnel killed in the incident have been identified as Abdul Haleem Gishkori, Raja Khan Rind, Imam Bakhsh Bungulzai, Ali Nawaz and Mohammad Nawaz. The PPL employee was identified as Mohammad Munir.
A caller identifying himself as Mirak Baloch told newsmen over the phone that the Baloch Liberation Army had planted the landmine in Bolan district.
In the second incident, two landmines exploded within a short span of time near the Government Dairy Farm in Kohlu, killing three people and injuring 25 others, seven of them children.
Official sources said that the landmine had exploded in Killi Wazirhan Loharni, seriously injuring three children who were playing outside their home. Another landmine exploding in the same area killed three people on the spot and injured 22 others.
“These were anti-personnel mines planted by miscreants which exploded within a short span of time,” a senior official of the district administration, Kohlu, told Dawn over the telephone, adding that all the injured people were taken to the Civil Hospital Kohlu. Nine of the injured were discharge after first aid while nine others were sent to Dera Ghazi Khan.
“A woman and a six-year-old girl were among the victims of the explosions,” the sources said, adding that the building of the government dairy farm was also damaged. The three victims have been identified as Baz Mohammad Marri, Mst Naz Bakht and Sher Khatoon.
In the third incident, a man identified as Amir Mohammad Bugti was killed in the Pahawr Sinery area of Jaffarabad district when his tractor was hit by a landmine.
Official sources confirmed the incident and said that two other people who were also on the tractor were injured.
