At least five people, including a police officer, were killed and another injured when armed fighters attacked a post near the compound of Shafiq-ur-Rehman Mengal in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district early Wednesday, police said.
The attack took place in the Awak area, within the jurisdiction of Aranji Police Station, in rugged mountainous terrain about 150 kilometres from Khuzdar.
According to police, the attackers opened fire on an old Levies post near Mengal’s compound, where his guards and a police officer were deployed. Four guards, identified as Abdul Hayee, Naimatullah, Yahya and Naseer Ahmed, were killed at the scene.
The attackers also abducted police officer Noor Mohammad from the post and took him some distance away, where he was killed, police said, adding that another man, Obaidullah, was injured. The assailants fled the area following the attack.
Shafiq Mengal, a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) politician and head of the Jhalawan Panel, is the son of former caretaker chief minister Naseer Mengal. Baloch nationalist groups, families of missing persons and rights campaigners have accused him of leading a state-backed armed group involved in enforced disappearances and targeted killings of political activists.
Mengal has previously survived several attacks claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). On July 8, the group’s Majeed Brigade carried out a vehicle-borne suicide bombing followed by an armed assault on his compound in Khuzdar, triggering hours of fighting. Mengal survived the attack, which left multiple people dead and injured.
In June 2025, his brother Atta-ur-Rehman Mengal was killed and his son, Mati-ur-Rehman, injured in an attack in the Aranji area of Wadh. The BLA subsequently claimed responsibility, saying the operation had been carried out by its intelligence wing, ZIRAB, and the Fateh Squad.
The BLA’s Majeed Brigade had previously targeted Shafiq Mengal’s residence in Quetta in a suicide bombing in December 2011. Mengal survived, while several people were killed and injured.
No group had claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack at the time of publication.
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