The Balochistan government has set up a high-level judicial commission to independently investigate the deadly attack on the Managi Dam Pumping Station in Ziarat district, in which several police and Levies personnel were killed.

The commission has been constituted under Section 3(1) of the Balochistan Tribunals of Inquiry Ordinance, 1969, with Justice (Retd.) Muhammad Amir Nawaz Rana appointed as the one-man commission tasked with probing the incident and submitting findings.

According to an official notification issued Monday, the inquiry will look into how and why police personnel came to be deployed at the pumping station, and on what basis that security responsibility was assigned to them. It will also examine whether the Levies personnel on site were adequately trained for counter-insurgency operations and equipped to handle a high-risk assault, and whether they had sufficient weapons, ammunition, and reinforcements before and during the attack.

More broadly, the commission has been asked to identify any administrative, operational, or systemic failures that contributed to the incident, assess whether logistical support was timely and adequate, and determine whether there was negligence, misconduct, or dereliction of duty on the part of any official or department. It will also review how effective existing security protocols were at the time of the attack.

To carry out the inquiry, the commission has been given authority to record eyewitness statements, conduct site inspections and geo-mapping, and obtain call data records of relevant mobile phones. It can summon any individual or official for testimony, access records from police, the district administration, and other security agencies, and use forensic laboratory services to analyse digital and physical evidence.

Anyone wishing to provide information, evidence, or testimony including legal heirs and relatives of those killed, concerned citizens, and officials from law enforcement or administrative departments has been directed to appear before the commission's Registrar/Secretary, Malik Shoaib Sultan, at the Office of the Additional Registrar, Balochistan High Court, Hali Road, Quetta, during office hours by August 28, 2026.

The notification will be displayed at public places in Quetta, Ziarat, Sibi, Loralai, Harnai, and adjoining areas, and published on the front pages of major national and local Urdu and English newspapers, with the government covering the cost of the publicity campaign. Details of the commission's hearing schedule, timing, and venue will be announced later.

The inquiry comes in the wake of one of the most severe security incidents Balochistan has seen this year, and is being watched as a test of how far the province is willing to go on accountability for security lapses.

Published in Balochistan Dispatch, August 17th , 2026