A six-year-old girl injured when Pakistan’s Frontier Corps (FC) personnel shelled homes in Kardigap, Mastung, died at a hospital in Quetta, raising the death toll from the incident to four, local sources said.
Sources said FC personnel subjected Gurgina , Killi Pasund Khan, to heavy and indiscriminate shelling at around 7 p.m. on Tuesday, with several shells striking residential homes.
Several shells hit the home of Maulvi Abdul Jaleel Sarparah, killing his mother and two girls at the scene and injuring several others, they added.
The six-year-old girl was taken to Quetta in critical condition but later succumbed to her injuries at a hospital in the city.
Following the incident, residents placed the bodies of those killed at the scene on the Quetta-Nushki highway and began an indefinite protest sit-in, closing the N-40 route to all traffic.
The incident comes amid heightened military activity in Mastung and a series of reported aerial attacks affecting civilians.
On Sunday, three people, including a child, were injured in a reported drone strike in the Garro area of Khadkocha.
On Aug. 21, four orchard workers were killed and three others injured in a reported drone strike in the Gaith area of Khadkocha.
Gurgina has also seen previous military activity. In April, two young men were critically injured when Pakistani forces opened fire during an operation near Killi Mengi. The men were working in their fields at the time.
The FC, Balochistan government and Mastung district administration had not publicly commented on Tuesday’s shelling or the reported civilian deaths at the time of publication.