Four killed as Pakistani forces shell Balochistan homes

At least four people, including children, were killed and several injured after Frontier Corps personnel allegedly shelled homes in Balochistan’s Mastung district. The incident triggered an indefinite protest, while recent drone strikes and reports of disappearances heightened concerns over civilian safety 

Quetta: At least four people, including children, were killed and several others injured after Pakistan’s Frontier Corps (FC) personnel shelled homes in Kardigap tehsil of Balochistan’s Mastung district, local media reported.

Citing sources, The Balochistan Post reported that FC personnel carried out heavy and indiscriminate shelling in Kardigap on Tuesday evening, with multiple shells hitting residential homes. The report suggests that several shells hit the residence of a civilian, Abdul Jaleel Sarparah, killing his mother and two girls at the scene and leaving several others injured.

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One of the injured, the six-year-old girl, was rushed to Quetta in critical condition but later died of her injuries at a hospital, taking the death toll from the incident to four. The incident was followed by an indefinite protest sit-in, with residents placing the bodies of those killed on the Quetta-Nushki highway and bringing traffic to a standstill. This attack comes amid escalating military activity in Mastung and a series of aerial and drone strikes by Pakistani forces, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries.

Earlier on Sunday, as many as three people, including a child, were injured in a drone strike carried out by Pakistani forces in the Khadkocha area of Mastung, local media reported, citing sources.

The strike hit the Garro area of Khadkocha, following which the injured were transferred to Nawab Ghaus Bakhsh Raisani Hospital for medical treatment. The intensifying “security measures” have sparked concern among local communities and rights organisations over their humanitarian consequences.

Additionally, the recovery of at least six unidentified bodies from two locations in Mastung on Sunday raised fears that they may belong to Baloch youths who had earlier been forcibly disappeared by Pakistani forces, said a leading human rights organisation.

Expressing grave concern over the incident, the BVJ said that “innocent civilians, particularly young people, are allegedly being forcibly disappeared from their homes, educational institutions, and public roads in Balochistan and taken to secret detention facilities, where they are subjected to severe torture.”

The rights body further alleged that many forcibly disappeared persons are killed in custody and that attempts are subsequently made to portray their deaths as the result of staged encounters.