QUETTA: Six members of a family were killed in an attack in Dera Bugti on Thursday. Shortly afterwards, the vehicle of the ill-fated family’s relative — who had been rushing to their house after receiving information about the attack — was hit by a landmine blast, leaving another person dead and four others badly injured.

Official sources said that armed men barged into the house of an elder of Bugti tribe in Toba Nokhani village of Dera Bugti district and opened fire with automatic weapons on people while they were asleep early in the morning, killing elder Gujjar Bugti, his two wives and three children.

A Levies force official said that since the attack had been carried out in the early hours of the day, no one in the neighbourhood had noticed when they entered the house. The attackers fled the area soon after committing the crime, he added.

The incident is said to be the outcome of enmity.

The man killed in the landmine blast was the driver of the vehicle.

Among the four injured one was Wadera Ismail Bugti aka Pahari, a brother-in-law of Gujjar Bugti.

According to sources, Ismail Bugti was the leader of a militant group who recently surrendered himself to the authorities along with some other members of the group.

Security forces shifted bodies of the seven persons to the district hospital in Dera Bugti. The four injured were taken to the PPL hospital in Sui.

Meanwhile, Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti strongly condemned the attack.

“Attack on houses and killing of women and children are against Baloch traditions,” he said.

He accused people associated with the Brahamdagh Bugti group of being involved in the attack.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2017