GWADAR: Two Pakistan Navy officials were martyred and three others injured in an ambush in the coastal town of Jiwani in Gwadar district on Monday evening.

Official sources said that five personnel of the Pakistan Navy were travelling in an official vehicle carrying Iftar items when armed men targeted them.

“One Pakistan Navy man lost his life on the spot after receiving multiple bullet wounds while another succumbed to his injuries while being taken to a nearby health facility,” Abdul Hafeez Baloch, a senior police officer, told Dawn.

Three other injured Navy officials were taken to hospital, he added.

The police officer said four armed men on two motorcycles opened fire on the vehicle of the Pakistan Navy from two sides when it was on its way to the navy camp in Jiwani.

The assailants escaped after the incident.

A spokesman for the Pakistan Navy confirmed the incident and said two PN personnel were martyred and three others injured.

“Our two officials were martyred and three others injured in the armed attack launched by unknown armed men in the Jiwani area of Gwadar district,” the spokesman said in a statement.

“Three injured Naval officials are being shifted to Karachi for treatment,” he said, but did not give more details. Sources said that security forces launched a search operation in Jiwani and its surrounding areas after the attack.

A spokesman for the banned Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack.

Calling media persons in Quetta from an unknown place, he said his organisation had carried out ambush on the PN personnel.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2017