Two members of the staff of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) scouts were martyred and another injured on Friday when unidentified armed men opened fire on a joint control station in the Hudur de Chilas region.
According to Diamer’s assistant commissioner, Att-Ur-Rehman Kakar, the martyred scouts were identified as Naib Subedar Khushdad, a resident of Nagar, and Havaldar Ashraf, of Shigar.
The injured, Launches Naik Sajid whose state is now stable,, was moved to the chilas of the regional headquarters hospital.
After the attack, an emergency was declared to the hospital while the security forces completed the area and launched a research operation to trace the attackers.
GB government spokesperson Faizullah Faraq, while condemning the incident, called him “an act of loose and unforgivable terrorism”.
He added that the GB chief minister Haji Gulbar Khan, had taken strict note and had ordered immediate measures against the authors.
“We will make sure that these disbeliever handles have nowhere to hide,” he added.
The Minister of the Interior of the GB, Shamsul Haq Lone, also swore that those behind the attack would be brought to justice, stressing that the pursuit of terrorists was already underway.
Who are the GB scouts?
Gilgit-Baltistan scouts are a federal civilian armed force responsible for maintaining security in the Gilgit-Baltistan region. The force, as it exists today, was officially renowned on January 17, 2011, following the order of the 2009 self-government, which gave the region its current name.
Before that, they were known as scouts of the northern regions, raised on October 31, 2003 as a fifth civil army force of Pakistan to meet the long -standing demand for such a force in the region.
The GB scouts retrace their line towards the scouts of Gilgit, raised in 1889, which played a decisive role in the 1947-1948 liberation war against Dogra and the Indian forces, obtaining independence for the people of what is now gilgit-baltististan.
Over time, Gilgit scouts have been reinforced with the increase in northern scouts and Karakorum scouts. These three bodies were merged in 1974 to form the Northern Light Infantry (NLI). After the Kargil conflict in 1999, the NLI was absorbed by the Pakistani army as an ordinary infantry regiment.
