QUETTA, Aug 14: At least six pro-government Bugti tribesmen, including a former commander of Nawab Bugti, were killed and three others were seriously injured when a landmine exploded in Loti area of Dera Bugti on Thursday.
“The six tribesmen were killed on the spot when their pick-up was blown up,” a senior police officer told Dawn.
Part of a railway track linking Quetta with the border town of Chaman was blown up while rockets were fired at the FC Forts in Kohlu and Kahan and Police Training College in Quetta. A head constable of the Balochistan Constabulary was shot dead on the airport road.
Wadera Fazil Shabani Bugti, a renegade commander of Nawab Akbar Bugti, was going to Sui after attending an Independence Day function in Loti gas field along with eight other tribesmen.
Their vehicle hit the landmine planted by militants on a road in Bayloti.
“The pick-up was blown into pieces,” police sources said.
Security forces rushed to the area and took the bodies of the tribesmen and the injured to the PPL Hospital in Sui.
Four policemen were injured when unknown men hurled a hand-grenade on their van on Sabzal road, police sources said.
In another incident, two people were injured when a device exploded in a bazaar in the coastal town of Pasni. The blowing up of the railway line caused suspension of train between Quetta and Chaman.
“A two-foot portion of the track was damaged,” police sources said, adding that a train coming from Chaman was stopped at the Sheikhmanda station.
Railway engineers and other staff started repairing the track and rail traffic was likely to be restored by late night, railway authorities said.
According to reports reaching here, militants blew up two power pylons in Fazil Chal area of Kohlu, disrupting power supply to a vast area.
Frontier Corps forts in Kohlu and Kahan came under rocket attacks but suffered no damage.
Reports of three explosions were received from Turbat town, triggering panic among the people. No casualty was reported.
Beebargh Baloch, a spokesman for the Baloch Libration Army, claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks and the killing of the head constable.
