Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Saeed Aleem and Major General Samrez Salak escaped from an assassination attempt as a terrorist group attempted to destroy their helicopter in a remote area of quake-hit Balochistan, officials said on Thursday.
The incident occurred near Mashkai, a town of quake-hit Awaran district of Balochistan. Militants fired two rockets at the chairman of the NDMA who was flying with the senior army official to assess the damage in the area.
The rockets, however, failed to hit the helicopter with the top management and army officials on board.
Baloch rebel militant groups are making the situation worse for the quake-victims by attacking relief and medical teams that are arriving in the affected areas.
Terrorist leader, Allah Nazar Baloch’s group attacked doctors and a team of relief workers with the rockets in the Mashkai area earlier.
On Tuesday afternoon, the 7.7 earthquake struck and it was felt across the country, even causing a small island to rise from the Arabian Sea.
Violent tremors felled hundreds of mud-walled houses in at least six remote districts in Balochistan, killed hundreds of people and left over 500 people injured, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.
While official estimates suggest that the death toll is 350, individuals in the affected districts said that may reach to 1000.
The greatest damage occurred in Awaran, Balochistan’s poorest district, which is near the deep-sea port of Gwadar.