Gunmen abduct 18 workers from a marble facility near Khuzdar
Gunmen abducted 18 workers from a marble facility in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, police accounts said. The attackers arrived in vehicles and on motorcycles near Khuzdar, and a worker was reportedly wounded. Security forces launched a search and police opened an investigation. No group had claimed responsibility when the reports were published.
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Workers seized at a marble facility outside Khuzdar
Gunmen abducted 18 workers from a marble facility near Khuzdar, a district in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, according to police accounts. The attackers arrived in vehicles and on motorcycles and forced the workers away at gunpoint. The site lies near Naal, outside Khuzdar city. Daily Pakistan placed the attack late on Saturday and located the facility near Besar Mountain, approximately 35 to 40 km from the city.[1], [2]
Daily Pakistan identified the facility's owners as former provincial minister Sardar Aslam Bizenjo and his son Shah Mir Bizenjo. Its account said the assailants also took two vehicles and a loader. Initial information placed the workers' homes in different parts of Khuzdar district. A senior police official described the abducted men as local workers and said dozens of armed men had gathered them before leaving the site.[1], [2]
Police open an investigation as the search begins
Security forces launched a search for the workers, while police registered a case and began investigating the attack. No group had claimed responsibility when the accounts were published. Both accounts reported a worker wounded by gunfire, but differed on his name and circumstances after the shooting. An unnamed senior police official provided one account, while police and medical sources provided the other. Neither account announced the release of the 18 abducted workers.[1], [2]
The attack follows other abductions in Balochistan
The same accounts described an earlier abduction of 20 police personnel in Mastung, another district in Balochistan. Police said they had been returning from a recruitment process in Kalat. The latest attack had not been conclusively connected to the perpetrators of that incident. Balochistan borders Iran and Afghanistan and has faced a long separatist insurgency. Armed groups accuse federal authorities of withholding an adequate local share of the province's resources; Islamabad denies that allegation. The authorities had not identified the group responsible for the marble-facility abduction.[1], [2]
Earlier, senior regional administrator Asad Ullah Kakar had also been abducted while travelling between Quetta and Kharan, two cities in Balochistan. The abducted workers' whereabouts remained unknown after the marble-facility attack. The senior police official said one wounded worker had been taken with the others; the published search announcement gave no timetable for their release.[1]
