Armed attackers kill 20 coal miners in southwest Pakistan

The attack is the latest in Balochistan province and security concerns are growing in advance of a key international summit in Islamabad.

Armed assailants have killed 20 miners and injured another seven at a small private coal mine in southwest Pakistan, police said, raising security concerns just days before a major international summit is set to be held in the country.

The attackers broke into the miners’ quarters in Dukki district in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Thursday night, gathered the workers together and opened fire, local police official Hamayun Khan Nasir said on Friday.

“A group of armed men attacked the Junaid Coal company mines in the [Dukki] area in the [early] hours using heavy weapons,” he said, adding the attackers fired rockets and grenades at the mines as well.

Most of the victims were from Pashtun-speaking regions within Balochistan, according to Nasir. Three of the deceased and four of the injured were Afghan nationals.

No group has immediately taken responsibility for the assault.

Balochistan is a hotbed of armed movements, with the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) most prominent among them. They accuse the central government in Islamabad of exploiting the province’s rich oil and mineral resources to the detriment of the local population in the country’s largest and least-populated province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.

On Monday, the BLA – designated a terrorist group by Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States – claimed responsibility for an attack targeting Chinese nationals near Pakistan’s largest airport.

The Chinese embassy in Pakistan said at least two of its citizens were killed and a third injured after their convoy was targeted with an improvised explosive device believed to have been detonated by a suicide bomber.

Local media reports suggest at least 10 people were injured in total, with four cars destroyed in the explosion and 10 more vehicles damaged in the resulting fire.

Thousands of Chinese nationals work in Pakistan, many of them involved in Beijing’s multibillion-dollar infrastructure project the Belt and Road Initiative.

Despite China’s repeated requests for Pakistan to bolster security, there has been a surge in attacks and unrest surrounding key Belt and Road infrastructure projects in the country.

The attack has raised concern about the ability of Pakistani security forces to safeguard high-profile events and foreign nationals in advance of next week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Heads of Government summit, which is set to meet in Islamabad on October 15 and 16.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies