INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Dozens of attackers armed with guns, rockets and hand grenades stormed a cluster of small private coal mines in southwestern Pakistan on
Friday, slaying some miners in their sleep and shooting others after lining them up, killing at least 21 in the restive region, police
said.The attack by around 40 armed men days before Pakistan hosts a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization grouping is the worst
the mines of the Junaid Coal Co in the Duki area, which also injured six.Among the dead were four Afghan nationals; another four were
facilitate the transfer of the bodies.Businesses and shops were shut in Duki as hundreds of people gathered along with the bodies of the
down all 10 mines, along with the equipment and machinery within, he added.A decades-long insurgency in Balochistan by separatist militant
groups has led to frequent attacks against the government, army and Chinese interests in the region to press demands for a share in
mineral-rich regional resources.Several attacks have targeted migrant workers, including some from Afghanistan, employed by smaller,
militants, who have resurged since 2022 after revoking a ceasefire with the government.Two Chinese nationals working for a power plant were
killed this week in a blast in the southern city of Karachi, for which the Baloch Liberation Army, one of several insurgent groups battling
police stations, railway lines, and highways, killing more than 70 people.Armed men who stormed the residence of labourers from the eastern
province of Punjab last month killed seven.On Friday, crossfire between police and attackers killed two suspected militants involved in a
2021 attack on dam project workers that killed 13, including nine Chinese nationals.Source: Reuters--Agencies--
