Pakistan: 26 labourers wounded in grenade attack in Gwadar port city
The port in Balochistan province, which connects western China with West Asia and Europe, is key to Beijing’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’.
At grenade attack on a labourers’ hostel in the Pakistani port of Gwadar left 26 workers injured, Reuters reported on Friday. The attack may raise concerns about the nation’s preparedness to provide security for the Pakistani section of China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’.
“The labourers were having dinner at the hostel when motorcyclists attacked them with a grenade,” Reuters quoted police official Imam Bakhsh as saying. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. There were three attacks reported in the province of Balochistan on Thursday. Balochistan is a key energy and transport link between western China and West Asia.
Energy and infrastructure facilities in the port city have been targeted by separatist groups who believe that the government is exploiting Balochistan’s resources, the news agency reported. The attacks aimed at obstructing work on the Chinese economic corridor in Pakistan have led to the deaths of more than 50 workers since 2014, officials told Reuters.
In another attack, at least 15 people were injured after unidentified men threw a grenade at the main market in Mastung, Geo News reported. In the third attack, motorcycle-borne attackers opened fire at paramilitary soldiers in the west of the province, killing one and wounding four.
Seven policemen were killed and 22 people were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in Quetta on October 17. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack.