QUETTA: Eight tribesmen and a young girl were killed in two separate incidents in Balochistan on Sunday, including an armed attack in Qila Abdullah and a deadly clash in Dera Bugti, officials said.
In the first incident, a senior police official said a group of armed men entered the Killi Badawan area in Qila Abdullah and opened fire on their rivals. The attack left four tribesmen dead at the scene after they sustained multiple bullet wounds, while a young girl later died of her injuries after being shifted to Quetta for treatment.
The official said the attackers fired “hundreds” of rounds into the air before fleeing the area. Police and other law enforcement agencies rushed to the scene and launched a search operation to track down those involved.
According to police, the attack was the result of a long-standing tribal feud. Officials said the aggrieved side had previously killed six people belonging to the attackers’ group. One of the assailants was also quoted at the scene as saying, “We have taken revenge today.”
Following the attack, members of the affected tribe staged a protest by placing the bodies on the Quetta-Chaman Highway, blocking traffic and demanding the immediate arrest of the attackers.
The protest ended after successful negotiations between Qila Abdullah Deputy Commissioner Manzoor Magsi, the assistant commissioner and the demonstrators, after which traffic on the highway resumed several hours later.
In a separate incident in Dera Bugti, two rival factions of the Bugti clan exchanged gunfire over a marriage proposal. A senior police officer told that armed men from both groups took positions with automatic weapons and opened fire on each other.
The clash claimed the lives of four people from both sides, while another person was injured. The wounded individual was shifted to the district hospital for treatment, and a heavy deployment of law enforcement personnel was made in the area to prevent further violence.