QUETTA - Seven security officials were killed in an attempt to stop a bank robbery in Balochistan city of Turbat on Tuesday, officials said.
A robber also died in the incident in the city of Turbat, around 48 km south of the provincial capital Quetta, when law enforcement personnel tried to foil the raid.
“Three armed robbers stormed the government-owned National Bank in Turbat by killing the policeman guarding the bank and holding the staff hostage,” local police official Arif Nawaz told AFP.
He said law enforcement personnel including police and paramilitary forces surrounded the bank, but accomplices of the thieves waiting outside opened fire on them. “Five policemen and a member of the paramilitary troops were killed during the shootout,” he said.
He said one of the robbers was also killed while two others were arrested.
Another senior official of the district administration confirmed the incident.
“We have obtained CCTV footage and are examining it to nab the (remaining) perpetrators,” senior administration official Akbar Haripal told AFP.
According to another report, an assistant commissioner was among the people who got injured during the firefight.
The bodies of martyred soldiers and the injured have been shifted to Military Hospital and Balon Medical Complex.
Martyred police personnel were identified as head constable Muhammad Akbar, head constable Muneer Ahmad, head constable Abdul Hameed, constable Arz Muhammad and Muhammad Hanif.
The injured including Assistant Commissioner Shafqat Anwar Shahwani, Deputy Superintendent of Police Nazir Ahmad, police inspector Muhammad Ameen, Nasratullah, Imam Dad, Abdul Waheed, Saeed Ahmad and Mumtaz Ahmad.
In recent months separatists and militants have resorted to looting banks in the province which has been hit by insurgency and sectarian violence since years.
Quetta and other parts of Balochistan have seen a sharp rise in bank robberies.
The incident comes a week after thieves robbed a private bank in Quetta.