SUKKUR, July 19: A rangers driver was killed and four others were injured when a landmine exploded near the Ganjo Marhata village on the Sindh-Balochistan border in the Bukhshapur police jurisdiction on Saturday.

When a rangers team on mobile duty reached near the village, a landmine exploded under its vehicle.

As a result, five rangers personnel — Hawaldar Tariq, Naik Habibullah, Naik Abdul Qayyum, Naik Abdul Razzaq and driver Ghalib Hussain — were seriously injured.

They were shifted to a hospital in Guddu where the driver died.

This correspondent tried to obtain comments from Col Hafeez, who is leading the operation against the outlaws, Col Shahid and rangers PRO Captain Imran but they were not available on telephone.

Meanwhile, the operation against the outlaws continued on the provincial border and the rangers picked up more than 100 suspected persons.

Jamhoori Watan Party chief Nawab Akbar Bugti, while talking to this correspondent from Dera Bugti on telephone, termed the operation fruitless, saying that the outlaws, on getting information from their contacts in the Sindh and Balochistan police, had fled before the operation started. He said that now the innocent villagers were being targeted by the agencies.

Farooq Domki, prominent landlord of the Domki tribe, welcomed the operation but said that the rangers also targeted the peaceful villagers and took away their licensed weapons.