QUETTA -  Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) leader along his security guard was gunned down in the provincial capital on Thursday. The assailants managed to escape from the scene after committing the gruesome offence.

Unidentified armed men opened fire at BNP-M leader Malik Naveed Dehwar’s car on Arbab Karam Khan Road. As a result, Malik Naveed Dehwar and his security guard sustained serious injuries. They were rushed to hospital where they succumbed to their injuries.

Malik Naveed, 38, and his guard, Rahim Bakhsh, 42, were attacked by two gunmen on motorcycles shortly after he had left his home, SP Ashraf Jattak said.

The dead bodies were shifted from Arbab Karam Khan Road to Civil Hospital Quetta, Dr Waseem Baig, spokesman for the hospital, told The Nation. Dr Waseem said Malik Naveed Dehwar and Rahim Bakhsh, a levies security guard, who were injured on Arbab Karam Khan Road, were brought to the hospital. The condition of one Haji Essa who was also injured in the incident was reported to be stable.

Balochistan National Party Central Secretary Information Agha Hassan Baloch strongly condemned the target killing of the party leader on Arbab Karam Khan Road.

The assailants escaped unhurt after spraying bullets at Dehwar’s car, killing him on the spot. The injured were rushed to Quetta Civil Hospital’s trauma centre for treatment.

Police and personnel of other law-enforcement agencies reached the scene and started investigation into the incident. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack as yet.

Malik Naveed Dehwar was a local leader of BNP which is led by former Balochistan chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal.

The BNP strongly condemned the killing of its leader and urged the government to arrest the killers.

Naveed was one of the leaders of the Balochistan National Party which wants that more funds from the province’s rich natural resources should go to the Baloch people.

PROFESSOR’S SON, GUARD SHOT DEAD

An another target killing incident, Aimal Khan, son of renowned Pashto scholar Professor Dr Sial Kakar, along with his security guard were shot dead by armed men.

Police reached Chashma Achuzai where the shooting occurred and shifted dead bodies to a hospital. Aimal Khan was working with UNHCR.

The funeral prayer was offered in Quetta and the deceased was laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard in Saranan.

Chief Minsiter Nawab Sanaullah Zehri condemned the target killing incidents in Quetta directed the police and other law enforcement agencies to outline a strategy to counter such incidents. The CM ordered police and other forces to revisit the security plan. It may be mentioned here that six persons have been shot dead in Quetta during the last 24 hours.

Balochistan has long been home to an insurgency by the nationalist and separatist groups that accuse the federal government of discrimination in distribution of revenues from oil, gas and minerals.

Taliban and al Qaeda militants, as well as Islamic State-aligned Sunni sectarian groups also operate in the province which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

Violence in Balochistan has raised concerns about security for the projects related to the $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a planned transport and energy link between western China to Pakistan’s southern deep-water port of Gwadar.