QUETTA: Three workers were shot dead at a coal mine in the Shahrag area of Harnai district on Sunday morning.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

“Armed men suddenly appeared at the coal mine site and opened indiscriminate fire with automatic weapons,” a senior official of the Levies Force said, adding that all the three miners died on the spot. “It seems to be a target killing to create terror,” he said.

Security forces rushed to the site soon after receiving information about the incident and shifted the bodies to a nearby health facility.

Officials said that all the three victims were Afghan nationals and residents of Kandahar.

“The deceased miners have not been identified so far,” said Sohail Anwar Hashmi, the deputy commissioner of Harnai district.

Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo and Home Minister Mir Ziaullah Langove strongly condemned the killings and termed the incident a terrorist act. They said those involved in this barbarian act would be brought to justice, they stressed.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2021