QUETTA – Police are trying to track down the gunmen who shot dead a senior prison official in Quetta.
Imtiaz Ahmad, chief warden of the district prison, was targeted late Saturday awhen two people riding a motorcycle sprayed him with bullets near his office, police said. “Two armed persons riding a motorcycle opened fire on Imtiaz Ahmad and fled. He received critical wounds and died instantly,” Qazi Abdul Wahid, a senior police official in Quetta, told AFP. Police have started a search operation to hunt the killers of the jail warden.  Police and security forces are frequently attacked in Balochistan.
Al-Qaeda-linked militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) claimed responsibility for Saturday’s killing, telling local media: “The slain warden was a cruel person and used to subject our imprisoned leaders and workers to torture.” Earlier this month a senior police official was assassinated in Quetta in another drive-by shooting claimed by LJ.
On April 29, British aid worker Khalil Dale was found beheaded in Quetta, nearly four months after he was kidnapped in the city. There has been no claim of responsibility for his murder.