The attack by about 40 armed men days before Pakistan hosts a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation grouping is the worst in weeks in the restive, mineral-rich province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
They fired rockets and hurled grenades at the mines and miners' quarters. The attackers also set fire to machinery on-site, said a senior government official in the district.
We were receiving threats from the militants for some time but there was no information about the attack, said mine owner Khairullah Nasar, who is also the chair of the district council.
A decades-long insurgency in Balochistan by separatist militant groups has led to frequent attacks against government and army interests in the region to press demands for regional resources.
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