QUETTA - Unidentified assailants martyred four patrolling personnel of Frontier Corps Wednesday morning in Quetta’s sensitive area of Sariab Road.
The Pakistani Taliban said it carried out the attack, the second time this month it has claimed a deadly assault on security forces.
The assailants, after carrying out the terror attack, managed to escape. “Four personnel of the Frontier Corps embraced martyrdom in the assault,” confirmed Inspector General of Police Moazzam Jah Ansari.
The victims had no chance to retaliate, said Abdul Razzaq Cheema, a senior police official, adding that they recovered 108 Kalashnikov bullet cases from the site. "We suspect the attackers were at least four people who came on two motorbikes," he said.
Naseebullah Khan, Senior Superintendent of Police, told Reuters “The four men were shot in the head.”
A heavy contingent of law-enforcement agencies rushed to the area following the incident and cordoned off the area while rescue teams shifted the bodies to Combined Military Hospital for medico-legal formalities.
Talking to media persons after visiting the crime scene along with high officials of the Frontier Corps, the IGP said the four Frontier Corps personnel who were on routine patrol on two-motorcycles for the security of the railway track in the Langovabad area came under the terror attack.
According to the initial investigation into the terror incident, three to four armed assailants attacked the law enforcers. Ansari said different kinds of light and heavy arms were used in the assault.
Had the safe city project been functional in the city, the attack would have been averted, the IGP said, adding all-out efforts were needed to make it functional.
The slain security men deployed on the security of the railway track were identified as Naik Muhammad Saeed, Lance Naik Muhammad Aslam, Shabbir and Muhammad Amjad, said the police.
Hours later, the Taliban-linked Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Almi militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The militant group's spokesman, Ali Bin Sufyan, said in a statement that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Almi will continue targeting security forces.
At least seven people including five policemen were martyred in a suicide attack near a police truck on January 9, the day when Nawab Sanaullah resigned as the chief minister.
On February 3 a suicide bomber killed 11 soldiers in an attack on an army camp in the Swat Valley, with the Pakistani Taliban claiming responsibility.
Expressing deep concern over the martyrdom of the security men, Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo said the culprits behind the attack would be brought to justice. He paid rich tribute to the martyrs for sacrificing their lives in the line of duty.
Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti also condemned the attack and expressed deep grief over the loss of precious lives.
Meanwhile, the funeral of the martyred security men, offered at the FC headquarters, was attended by Chief Minister Bizenjo, Frontier Corps Inspector General Maj-Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum, IGP Moazzam Jah Ansari and other high civil and security officials.
