A devastating attack on coal mines in the Duki district of Balochistan has left at least 21 miners dead and several injured. The attackers reportedly used rocket launchers and hand grenades in the assault, setting fire to machinery within the mines.

The deceased and injured have been transported to local hospitals. Police confirmed that the victims hailed from various regions, including Pishin, Qilla Saifullah, Zhob, Muslim Bagh, Musa Khel, Quetta, and Afghanistan.

The attack by 40 armed men days before Pakistan hosts a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization grouping is the worst in weeks in the mineral-rich province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran.

Businesses and shops were shut in Duki as hundreds of people gathered along with the bodies of the dead in a protest to demand the arrest of the attackers, police said.

“We were receiving threats from the militants for some time but there was no information about the attack,” said mine-owner Khairullah Nasar, who is also the chairman of the district council.

According to police, the attackers gathered the miners into groups before opening fire. SHO Humayun Khan stated that all of the deceased and injured were Pashtun.

A security official, identified as Ajmal, is also among the dead.

The coal mines are owned by Duki District Chairman Haji Khairullah, who reported that the attackers set fire to ten coal engines at the mines. He further confirmed the use of hand grenades, rocket launchers, and other heavy weaponry in the attack. Authorities are currently investigating the incident.

Balochistan has witnessed several terrorist attacks against ordinary labourer or wage earners in recent months but those primarily targeted people from the Punjab province.

This is the first major attack against Pashtuns who form a large proportion of population in Balochistan.

Several attacks have targeted migrant workers, including some from Afghanistan, employed by smaller, privately operated mines.

The government was “determined to root out all forms of terrorism”, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement.

“The provincial government has ordered an investigation and a case has been registered against unknown assailants under the terrorism law,” a government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Pakistan has seen a resurgence in Islamist militancy since 2022, when a ceasefire between the banned TTP and the government broke down.

Two Chinese nationals working for a power plant were killed this week in a blast in the southern city of Karachi, for which the banned terrorist organisation claimed responsibility.

The outlawed organisation was also behind Balochistan’s most widespread violence in years in August, which targeted police stations, railway lines, and highways, killing more than 70 people.

Armed men who stormed the residence of labourers from the eastern province of Punjab last month killed seven.

On Friday, cross-fire between police and attackers killed two suspected militants involved in a 2021 attack on dam project workers that killed 13, including nine Chinese nationals.

(With input from Reuters)