QUETTA: A Levies man and six civilians were gunned down over the past 48 hours in different areas of Balochistan.

Police said on Monday that a Levies soldier and two other people were martyred in the Killi Bangulzai area on the outskirts of Quetta on Saturday. The victims were going home in a vehicle after offering Eid prayers when armed men on a motorcycle attacked them.

“The three men suffered multiple bullet injuries and died on the spot,” a senior police officer said.

Soon after the incident, police and personnel of Frontier Corps rushed to the site and took the bodies to the Civil Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

The Levies man was identified as Anwar Jan, while the other deceased as Najeebullah and Habibullah. The two civilians were brothers.

The bodies were shifted to Sibi after their funeral prayers.

The funeral prayers for the Levies man was attended by caretaker Home Minister Inyatullah Kasi, Quetta Commissioner Javed Anwar Shahwani, Home Secretary Ghulam Ali Baloch, Quetta Deputy Commissioner Farrukh Atiq and a large number of security officials.

The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the Levies soldier’s killing through social media.

In another incident, a man was shot dead in the Khud-Cocha area of Mastung. The victim was sitting outside a shop when armed men targeted him.

The deceased was identified as Hazar Khan. Levies officials termed the motive for the murder an old enmity.

Another man identified as Gul Mohammad was gunned down in the main bazaar of Awaran.

One Mullah Noorul Haq was shot dead in Qila Saifullah.

A man identified as Ahmed Jan was killed in the Garisha area of Khuzdar district.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2018