QUETTA: Five people — two coal miners and three personnel of the Fro­­ntier Corps — have been killed in an attack and a subsequent landmine blast in the Khost area of Harnai district.

Levies officials said that unidentified armed men opened fire on the coal miners working outside a mine from nearby mountains late on Wednesday night.

After receiving information about the attack, personnel of the Levies force and Frontier Corps rushed to the area. But one of FC vehicles blew up after it hit a landmine planted by some miscreants in the area.

Four soldiers in the vehicle received injuries. Three of them, who suffered fatal injuries, died on spot. They were identified as Havaldar Mohammad Shafiq, Mohammad Junaid and Khuda-i-Noor.

The injured soldier, Sher Alam, was later taken to a hospital.

The two coal miners were identified as Syed Shah and Habibullah.

Meanwhile, security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation. They took some suspects into custody for interrogation.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2019