QUETTA, Feb 2: Armed men killed four policemen and kidnapped a deputy commissioner, an engineer and eight security men in Aab-i-Gum area of Bolan district in separate incidents early on Wednesday. Dawn

Among the slain policemen was the SHO of Dera Allahyar police station, Balochistan Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani told , adding that eight of the kidnap victims, including seven security men, had been freed by the evening.

“The armed men involved were wearing commando uniforms of the security forces,” he said.

A spokesman for the Baloch Liberation Army, Meerak Baloch, said the BLA was behind the attacks.

The law-enforcement agencies have launched a search operation in the mountainous areas of Machh to get the kidnap victims freed.

“We are making all out efforts for safe recovery of the deputy commissioner and engineer,” Balochistan's Inspector General of Police, Malik Iqbal, said. Sources said the deputy commissioner of Jhal Magsi, Shaukat Marghazani, was on his way to Quetta in his official vehicle from Jhal Magsi along with his family and guards late on Tuesday night.

When he reached the Aab-i-Gum area about two dozen armed men intercepted his vehicle and kidnapped him after overpowering his guards.

“Armed men snatched weapons from the security men and kidnapped them along with the deputy commissioner,” an official of the Machh administration said.

However, he added, the attackers allowed the family of the deputy commissioner to go.

In the same area, armed men intercepted an engineer of the Balochistan Development Authority, Mohammad Nawaz, and kidnapped him, leaving his car behind.

The sources said that about two hours after the engineer was kidnapped a police contingent was passing through the area when armed men opened fire on them. Four policemen were killed.

Their bodies were found along the road and they were identified as Sub-Inspector Ali Nawaz Khosa, Constables Ghulam Rasool and Fakhruddin and driver Ghulam Din.

The sources said that a fifth policeman, identified as Sahib Khan, was missing.

Assistant Commissioner Machh Qaim Khan Lashari said that security forces had got eight kidnapped people — four policemen, two Levies Force personnel, a security guard and a child — freed.

Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani announced Rs2 million and Police Foundation Rs100,000 each for the slain policemen.