The Baloch Hal | March 22, 2011 | Original story
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Baloch Hal News

QUETTA: At least eleven people, including seven personnel of the Frontier Works Organization (FWO), which is a wing of the Pakistan army, were killed and two others received serious wounds in an armed attack in the port city of Gwadar on Monday night.

The Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), an organization striving for Balochistan's liberation, accepted responsibility for the incident.

Also see: Chinese engineers in Gwadar escape rocket attacks. And Balochwarna lists articles that note numerous warnings from resistance groups.

The FWO had formerly worked in the same region on the mega project of the Mekran Coastal Highway during the government of General Pervez Musharraf.

Official sources said that eight attackers riding on four motorcycles appeared on the site of camp of the FWO located at Palari area near Iran border some 50 KM west of Gwadar town and sprayed a volley of bullet on the labourers with sophisticated weapons. As a result four were killed on the spot while eight others sustained serious bullet wounds. However, six among the injured later succumbed to their injuries before getting any medical aid.

"The death of ten persons including the soldiers of FWO and injuries to two others is confirmed in a terrorist attacks in Palari area of Gwadar district", the Provincial Home and Tribal Secretary government of Balochistan Akbar Husstain Durrani told this ascribe.

The attack was carried when a large group of labour along with the staff members of Frontier Works Organization, a sister organization of Pakistan Army and National Highway Authority involved in under construction of coastal highway completed their work and having rest close to road in the evening. The assailants escaped from the site after committing the crime.

After the attack the police and Frontier Corps Balochistan rushed to the area and started evacuation of the injured and shifting the dead bodies. Security forces started a massive search in the area to arrest attackers.

Assistant Commissioner of the area Mohammad Talha told the local reporters that the attackers were riding on four motorcycles and armed with Kalashnikovs who sprayed volley of bullets on the labourers and personnel of FWO and officials of NHA that resulted into killing of eleven persons including seven soldier and three technical staff members of NHA and injuries to two others.

Sources said that a passerby civilian was also killed in the attack. The injured and dead were moved to Navy hospital, however, their names could not be ascertained. No group immediately accepted responsibility for the attack.

The port city of Gwadar become the bone of contention between Balochistan and Islamabad after the latter started a construction project on a deep-sea port with the financial and technical assistance of China. The local Baloch population, while demanding control over the port, resented the multi-million controversial port. The resentment toward the port in Gwadar led to attacks on Chinese construction engineers and several other no-locals.

The Baloch say they feel the development of the Gwadar Port is a poly to convert them into a minority on their land because of the expected influx of non-natives in the region. On its part, Islamabad has insisted that the Port in Gwadar would usher in a new epoch of economic benefits and cementing relations between China and Pakistan.