Gunmen shoot dead 3 policemen in SW Pakistan
QUETTA: Unidentified gunmen riding a motorcycle killed three policemen at a checkpoint in southwest Pakistan on Sunday before fleeing the scene, authorities said, in the latest attack to target officials in restive Balochistan.
The incident occurred on the main Saryab Road of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province which is wracked by violence, senior police official Abdul Razzaq Cheema told AFP.
Doctor Farid Sumalani, head of the Sandeman Provincial Hospital, confirmed the incident.
Quetta is the capital of Pakistan’s mineral-rich Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.
Pakistan has been battling insurgencies in the province since 2004, with hundreds of soldiers and militants killed in the fighting.
The shooting came days after Daesh said it had killed two Chinese citizens who were kidnapped last month by armed gunmen in Quetta.
The terror group made the claim in a brief Arabic message carried by its Amaq news agency on Thursday, though there was no immediate confirmation from Chinese or Pakistani officials.
Beijing is ramping up investment in its South Asian neighbor as part of a plan unveiled in 2015 that will link its far-western Xinjiang region to Gwadar port in Balochistan with a series of infrastructure, power and transport upgrades.
Daesh has been making inroads in the country through alliances with local militant outfits such as the sectarian Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jamaatul-Ahrar, though its presence is generally downplayed by the government.
China has often urged Pakistan to improve security after pledging around $57 billion to build power plants, railways, and roads that will cross the Himalayas to connect western China with Gwadar.
Pakistani officials have outlined to Reuters extensive security plans that include thousands-strong police protection forces, tighter monitoring of Chinese nationals.
The protection forces will buttress a 15,000-strong army division set up specifically to safeguard projects in the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative, which has been credited with rejuvenating Pakistan's $300 billion economy.
"We are already alert, but this incident has made us extra vigilant over Chinese security," said Amin Yousafzai, deputy inspector general of police for the southern province of Sindh, which is home to about 50 million people.