Other MoA event in Balochistan, Aranji, Khuzdar District area, Pakistan on Wed 16th September 2026

At least five people, including a Police officer, were killed and another injured when Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) cadres attacked a post near the compound of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Shafiq-ur-Rehman Mengal in the Awak area within the jurisdiction of Aranji Police Station in Khuzdar District of Balochistan on September 16, reports The Balochistan Post. 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 attackers fled the area following the attack. Tribal elder Shafiq Mengal, a PPP politician and head of the Jhalawan Panel, is the son of former caretaker Chief Minister Naseer Mengal. Shafiq Mengal is notorious for the head of ‘death squad’ (state-backed armed militia) who was allegedly for the enforced disappearances and targeted killings of Baloch nationalists. The BLA claimed responsibility for the attack, saying five people, including a police officer, were killed as part of its “Operation Marg-e-Gaddaran” (Death to Traitors). In a statement issued to the media, BLA ‘spokesperson’ Jeeyand Baloch said the group’s fighters attacked what he described as an “important and active base” belonging to Mengal in the Awak area of Aranji.