Four cops shot dead in Quetta

QUETTA: Four policemen were shot dead in Quetta as unidentified armed men open fired at them in the Satellite Town on Thursday.

The personnel were sitting inside the room of a mini gas station situated on the Munir Mengal Road of the town when four unidentified attackers barged in and opened indiscriminate fire upon them, said SSP Operations Waheedur Rehman.

As many as 25 rounds of 9mm pistol were also recovered from inside the room of the gas station, he added. As a result, three policemen died on the spot while the fourth cop succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital. The deceased were identified as constables Abdul Nafaay, Inyatullah and Sadiq.

Heavy contingents of police and other law enforcement agencies rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area. The deceased and the injured were shifted to the Civil Hospital, Quetta. This was the fifth targeted attack on police in Quetta since the beginning of the year as at least 19 police personnel have been killed within a month in numerous incidents of targeted killings and suicide attacks.

Earlier, this month unidentified armed men killed two police personnel on the Sariab Road in Quetta.Meanwhile, the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack. It said the TTP’s special unit STF’s commandos successfully carried out the attack at a police mobile in Quetta’s Satellite Town. The commandos disappeared after the attack, TTP spokesperson Mohammad Khorasani said on Thursday.

Following the attack, police and the Frontier Corps carried out a joint search operation in Lower Karaiz and Ghafoor Town, rounding up 48 suspects.Funeral prayers of the deceased police personnel were offered at the Civil Lines, Quetta, attended among others by Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti and Inspector General Police Ahsan Mehboob.