Six killed in attack on Hungarian energy firm: Pakistan

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
23 May 2023 13:37

Pakistan has been witnessing a surge in violent attacks and bombings over the past years.

Security officials place flowers on the coffin of a police officer who was killed in an ambush in the village of Shahab Khel in Lakki Marwat, Pakistan, on Nov. 16. (AFP)

Police reported, on Tuesday, that six Pakistani security personnel were killed in an overnight siege by dozens of militants on a Hungarian-owned oil and gas exploration site.

Pakistan has seen an increase in militancy since the hasty US withdrawal in 2021, with attacks mostly targeting security forces and foreign interests accused of exploitation.

Around midnight, some 50 militants stormed a property owned by the Budapest-based MOL Group in the Hangu region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, as per district police commander Asif Bahadur.

"They were armed with light and heavy weapons and fired mortar shells, killing six security personnel at the main entrance" to the remote site near the Afghan border, said Bahadur.

He said the victims included four personnel of the Frontier Constabulary, a paramilitary police auxiliary group, and two Pakistani private security guards for the enterprise.

"The exchange of fire continued for more than an hour. Police forced the militants to flee," Bahadur added.

He blamed the attack on Tehreek-e Taliban although there has been no claim of responsibility. The group is a separate entity from the Taliban in Afghanistan it shares a similar ideology with. It has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks that have been ripping through Pakistan since the group's emersion in 2007.

Noor Wali Khan, a second district police official, affirmed the assault and the death toll.

It is worth noting that the MOL Group has been operating a Pakistan subsidiary since 1999 and employs 400 people, according to their website.

"We are assessing the information," a spokesperson for the Hungarian embassy in Islamabad said, stressing that no diplomatic action was planned.

Last week, Al Mayadeen correspondent reported that a suicide attacker targeted the convoy of the head of the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan chief Sirajul Haq, while he was in Balochistan's Zhob district, confirming that Haq survived the assassination attempt.

Pakistan has been witnessing a surge in violent attacks and bombings. The TTP had agreed with the Pakistani government on a ceasefire in June 2022. However, both parties have made several claims that the truce was ignored, with numerous clashes taking place.