No fewer than ten laborers were killed on Friday when their vehicle was hit by a blast from an improvised explosive device in southwest Pakistan, an official said.
“10 mine workers were killed in an attack in Harnai district,” Shahzad Zahri, a senior government official, told AFP.
The laborers were traveling “from the work site to the market for shopping as their car came under attack,” Saleem Tareen, another senior government official in the same district, told reporters, adding that it was “an IED blast.”
“We are investigating the attack.”
This comes a few months after 16 soldiers were killed and several others critically wounded after a brazen overnight attack by Pakistani Taliban on an army outpost near the border with Afghanistan.
The attack started after midnight and lasted about two hours as around 30 militants pummeled the mountainous outpost from three sides, one senior intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“Sixteen soldiers were martyred and five were critically injured in the assault,” he said.
“The militants set fire to the wireless communication equipment, documents, and other items present at the checkpoint.”