QUETTA: At least six security personnel were martyred and another two injured in a rocket attack on a bomb disposal team in the Mashkay area of Awaran district on Monday.

Official sources said the bomb disposal team was busy sweeping across the area some 30km from Mashkay when the rocket fired from the nearby mountains landed and exploded near them.

“Six personnel of the bomb disposal team were martyred on the spot when the rocket hit them,” official sources said, adding that two soldiers were injured.

A contingent of security force rushed to the scene and shifted the bodies and the injured to a nearby health facility.

The deceased were identified as Havaldar Shabbir and Sepoys Sheraz, Bashir, Sharaj, Allah Nawaz and Abid. The injured were Sepoys Ehsan and Rashid.

According to sources, security forces launched a search operation in the area to trace out the culprits involved in the attack.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2018