According to the police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district, 16 employees of the Kubal Khel Uranium Mine were abducted by unknown persons.
A senior official of the Lakki Marwat police told Independent Urdu that the employees work in the nuclear power project in Qoob Khel area of Lakki Marwat.
According to the official: ‘The employees were traveling in a private coach when unidentified armed men alighted them from the vehicle, set the vehicle on fire and abducted the employees.’
He said that ‘Uranium is produced in Kubal Khel, where the project of Kubal Atomic Energy Commission is planned.’
According to the official: ‘After abducting the employees, the abductors took them to forests near Mianwali, a town in Punjab bordering Lakki Marwat.
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“To recover the employees, the police and the army have started a joint operation.”
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the abduction, but last week, the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan said in a statement that they would also target the economic institutions of the Pakistan Army.
The Kubal Khel Uranium mine was discovered in 1986 where mining started in 1995 after various experiments.
The law and order situation in Lakki Marwat has been deteriorating for some time now where attacks on law enforcement officials have become a regular occurrence.
The Lakki Marwat police had also staged a dharna some time ago over the disturbing law and order situation in the district and appealed to the government to accept the situation.
The southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been affected by extremism since the beginning, with the most affected districts being North and South Waziristan, but these districts, including Lakki Marwat and Bannu, have also been hotbeds of extremist groups in the past.
The biggest attack in Lucky Marwat in 2010 still lingers in people’s minds, when a volleyball ground in Lucky Marwat exploded, killing over 140 people.
The area where the incident took place is now called ‘Widows’ Village’ as almost all the men in the houses of the village were killed in the blast.
The extremist group of Maulvi Tipu Gill is very active in Lucky Marwat.
According to senior journalist and analyst Rifatullah Orkazai, one of the reasons for the militant activities in Lucky Marwat is the group’s affiliation with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in 2022.
He said: ‘Tipu Gill had three militant groups and all three have joined the TTP. Another group belongs to Akhtar Gul Mehsud, who has joined the TTP.’
