Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan have killed at least 11 workers at a remote coal mine, officials said yesterday.
The victims of the attack in Baluchistan province were from the Hazara community.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack through its Amaq news agency via its Telegram communications channel.
“Dead bodies of the 11 miners have been taken to a local hospital,” Khalid Durrani, a government official in the area, told AFP.
Ethnic Hazara make up most of the Shia population in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan — the country’s largest and poorest region, rife with ethnic, sectarian and separatist insurgencies.
Hazaras have been frequently targeted by Taliban and Islamic State militants and other militant groups in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The attacks in Afghanistan have been claimed by an affiliate of Islamic State.
The attack came after a relative lull in nearly a year of violence against the community in the province.
The attack before dawn took place in the far-flung and mountainous Machh area — 60 kilometres southeast of here — while the miners slept, Durrani said.
A security official told AFP the attackers first separated the miners, tied their hands and feet, took them out into the hills and later killed them.
“The throats of all coal miners have been slit, after their hands were tied behind their backs and (they were) blind folded,” a security official told Reuters, requesting anonymity as he is not allowed to speak to media.
A video clip making the rounds on WhatsApp groups, apparently shot by a first responder, showed three bodies lying outside the room and the rest inside in pools of blood.
Both Durrani and the security official said the victims belonged to the Hazara community.
Durrani said the mine was deep in the mountains.
Some of the victims were beheaded, he added.
The assailants fled after the attack. Both officials said police and members of the local paramilitary force were on the scene, where a search operation had been launched to trace the attackers.
Dozens of local people and family members briefly blocked a main road in the area, demanding protection.
In a tweet, Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned “the killing of 11 innocent coal miners in Machh” as a “cowardly inhumane act of terrorism”.
Liaqat Shahwani, a spokesman for the provincial government, confirmed the incident and told private TV channel Geo that it was an act of terrorism.
Though Pakistan’s mines are notorious for poor safety standards, such attacks against miners are rare.
A member of Hazara community mourns the death of his relative in Quetta yesterday. (AFP)
