Islamic State claims responsibility for killing 11 Shia miners

Karachi/Queta, Jan 4: Unidentified gunmen Sunday kidnapped as many as 11 coal miners belonging to the minority Shia Hazara community and shot them dead after taking them to nearby mountain in the restive province of Baluchistan, according to the reports.

However, according to a Reuter report the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday that killed 11 miners from Pakistan’s minority Shia Hazaras in Baluchistan province.

As per the police the miners were on the way to work at Machh coal field when the unidentified gunmen abducted them and opened fire on them after taking them to the nearby mountainous region, the Express Tribune reported.

Six of the victims died on the spot while five others were critically injured and died on the way to hospital, the report said.

The gunmen identified those miners belonging to the Shia Hazara community, separated them from the lot and then took them away only to get killed.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the incident and termed it as ‘yet another cowardly and inhumane act of terrrorism’.

In a twitter message Khan assured the families of the victims that they will not be abandoned by the government,

Baluchistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan has also condemned the incident and sought an inquiry report from the authorities concerned. “Those who targeted these innocent coal miners do not deserve any concessions,” he said.

The attack took place in the Machh area of Bolan district of Baluchistan some 100 km southeast of Quetta. The miners were living in shared residential rooms near the mine.

According to the Reuter report quoting a security official, the miscreants slit the throats of these miners after their hands were tied behind their backs and they were blind-folded.

The attack came after a relative lull in nearly a year of violence against the mainly Shia Hazara minority in the province.

Baluchistan is the focus of the $60-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a transport and energy link planned between western China and Pakistan’s southern deepwater port of Gwadar.

Hazaras have been frequently targeted by Taliban and Islamic State militants and other Sunni Muslim militant groups in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.