Advisor to Chief Minister Balochistan on Home and Provincial Disaster Management Authority (HPDMA) Ziaullah Langove has said that five of the nine people killed in a recent operation by security personnel in Ziarat belonged to a terrorist organization.
Speaking at a press conference in Quetta, Langove stated that the names of those killed were included in Voice of Baloch Missing Persons’s list.
Last week, an operation against the assassins of Lt. Col. Laeeq Baig Mirza and his cousin was conducted close to Ziarat.
The advisor said that after Lt. Col. Laeeq’s assassination, security personnel carried out a significant operation in the Ziarat region.
However, the Balochistan National Party-Mengal, National Party, and certain Baloch nationalist organizations claimed that the five “militants” who were murdered in the operation were really missing people who had vanished after being [allegedly] taken by security authorities. These parties requested a probe into the deaths and expressed their concern.
While giving media briefing, Langove said that on July 12, Lt. Col. Laeeq and his cousin Umar Javed were abducted in Ziarat by militants from the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, who eventually killed them. The advisor characterized the behavior as being against Baloch and Islamic customs.
He said that an intelligence officer had been martyred during the mission. He claimed that five of the nine terrorists had been identified as a result of their names appearing on the list of missing people.
He said that the state’s stance on the matter was obvious because many of the missing people were engaged in anti-state activity. He also added that individuals responsible for the assaults in Nushki and Panjgur as well as those who assaulted the Karachi Stock Exchange were also included among the missing persons.
