Khuzdar Marble Workers Among 18 Abducted From Mine in Naal as Search Operation Gets Under Way

Quetta: Dozens of armed men stormed a marble mine in the Naal area of Khuzdar on Sunday and took 18 people away with them, police said. The attackers arrived on vehicles and motorbikes, held the men at the mine and its factory at gunpoint, and opened fire on a worker who tried to run, injuring him before fleeing with their captives. Among those taken was the son of the mine’s owner.

Whose mine, and who was taken

Naal station house officer Ghulam Mustafa said the site lies about 40 kilometres from Khuzdar city, near Baisar Mountain, and belongs to Sardar Alam Khan Bizenjo, son of Sardar Aslam Bizenjo, the Bizenjo tribal chief and a former provincial minister affiliated with the National Party. The abducted workers are locals from the Wadh and Naal areas. On their way out, the gunmen also took a loader and two vehicles from the premises.

Search under way, no claim of responsibility

Officials said security forces had launched a search operation in the area and police were trying to trace the kidnapped men. No group has claimed responsibility, and the motive is still unknown. It is the second mass abduction in Balochistan in two days: on Friday, gunmen seized 20 trainee constables returning from the Kalat Police Training Centre near Mastung, and the province’s divisional commissioner for Rakhshan was kidnapped a day before that. For the families waiting in Wadh and Naal, the pattern is becoming painfully familiar — men who went out to work, and did not come home.