Heavily armed men fire at workers for 30 minutes: 20 dead after attack on coal mine in Pakistan

“Around 12:30 am, 35 to 40 heavily armed men in civilian clothes opened fire on workers in a coal mine for about thirty minutes. Then they fled,” local police chief Asim Shafi told AFP news agency. According to the police chief, the perpetrators were equipped with rocket launchers and grenades.

Balochistan borders Afghanistan and Iran and is Pakistan’s poorest province, despite significant mines and gas reserves that separatists want to control. Separatists regularly carry out deadly attacks on security forces and Pakistanis from other provinces.