KARACHI: Akhtar Mengal, president of his own faction of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M), has refuted claims that a Baloch ‘missing person’ was among the gunmen who attacked a hotel in Gwadar on Saturday.

In a statement posted on Twitter on Sunday, Mr Mengal said that the person identified as Hammal mentioned in the missing persons list given to the government belonged to Kohlu and the terrorist identified as Hammal killed in the Gwadar attack belonged to Kech Makran.

“Hammal is a traditional Baloch name and there are thousands named after it. Not everyone named Hammal can be a missing person or a terrorist,” he wrote, calling people to not spread lies in the holy month of Ramazan.

“Those who are paid to lie are not scared of God so how can we expect from them the respect of the holy month,” he added.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2019