Gunmen in Pakistan kill 21 miners

Unidentified gunmen attacked a cluster of small private coal mines in southwestern Pakistan early on Friday, shooting some miners as they slept and lining up others before opening fire, killing 21 in the restive region, police said.

The attack by 40 armed men, days before Pakistan hosts a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, is the worst in weeks in the mineral-rich province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran.

“The armed terrorists remained for around 1-1/2 hours in the mining area,” said regional police official Asif Shafi. “They fired rockets and hurled grenades at the mines and miners’ quarters.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on the mines of the Junaid Coal Co in the Duki area, which injured six. Among the dead were four Afghan nationals, with another four injured.

Businesses and shops were shut in Duki as hundreds of people gathered with the bodies of the dead in a protest to demand the arrest of the attackers, police said.

“We were receiving threats from the militants for some time but there was no information about the attack,” said mine owner Khairullah Nasar, who is also the chairman of the district council.