GWADAR: Two persons, including a security man, were killed in firing and a bomb blast in Turbat and Panjgur areas on Thursday.

According to official sources, some people had planted a bomb by the road leading to a security checkpost in the mountainous Shapok area, about 20km south of Turbat town. It went off when security personnel passed by it to reach the post.

“One soldier of the Frontier Works Organisation constructing the Gwadar-Ratodero highway (M-8) died on the spot,” Hameed Khosa, the assistant commissioner of Turbat, told Dawn. He identified the slain soldier as Irfan.

After the blast, security personnel deployed for the protection of the FWO workers and engineers cordoned off the area and launched a search operation.

Meanwhile, gunmen shot dead a man identified as Muhammad Naeem in Vashbu area of Garmakan in Panjgur district. Police said that Naeem was on his way home when the armed men attacked him. He received multiple bullet wounds and died on the spot.

NARCOTICS SEIZED: The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) seized a huge quantity of drugs after a heavy exchange of fire in Pasni.

Officials said that ANF Gwadar conducted a raid in the coastal town of Shamal Bandan in Pasni tehsil after getting a tip-off.

Drug smugglers, armed with sophisticated weapons, opened fire on the ANF team. Subsequently, a heavy exchange of fire took place.

“The ANF team seized 93kg of ‘shisha’, a new drug that was supposed to be shipped to Yemen,” a senior ANF official said, adding that the value of the seized narcotics could be in billions.

No arrest could be made as the smugglers managed to flee the scene.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2014