QUETTA - In a deadly attack, 14 people, including three security personnel, were killed by militants in the Machh area of Bolan district, some 60 kilometres from Quetta, in the early hours of Tuesday.
The militants also kidnapped four Levies personnel after the attack. One soldier of the Frontier Corps was also killed and two were wounded in the firing.
Most of the deceased belonged to different parts of Punjab, who were going home to celebrate Eid. The banned Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the incident.
Levies officials said dozens of armed men dismounted from nearby mountains and intercepted several Punjab- and Sindh-bound buses in the Machh area and kidnapped 22 passengers at gunpoint from different buses after confirming their identity through their national identity cards. They said the militants also kidnapped four Levies personnel. After kidnapping the passengers, they shot dead 13 and threw their bodies in different areas. “The militants later released some passengers and four Levies personnel, seizing their official weapons,” they added.
When contacted, Bolan Deputy Commissioner Abdul Waheed Shah said around 150 to 200 attackers kidnapped the passengers at gunpoint and shot them dead. “The militants first opened fire on an oil tanker of Pakistan Air Force and destroyed it. On receiving information, Frontier Corps (FC) rushed to the site and cordoned off the area. The militants opened fire with sophisticated weapons and, in the crossfire, one FC man, identified as Muhammad Gul, was killed,” he said, adding the militants also kidnapped seven Balochistan Levies personnel from the same area.
The Bolan DC said that following the incident, the militants in Frontier Corps and Balochistan Levies uniforms, blocked the road and set up a fake checkpost. He said the militants stopped five to six passenger coaches which were heading towards Punjab from Quetta and, after checking their NICs, they kidnapped 13 passengers from different coaches.
“The militants took these passengers to mountains and shot them dead, later,” Shah said, adding that two of the passengers belonged to the security agencies.
He said the address of one security man had been written as Quetta Cantt while other deceased belonged to different parts of the Punjab. “The militants, before murdering the passengers, checked their NICs and released two Seraiki-speaking persons,” he added.
The Bolan DC said the area had been cordoned off for a thorough search, adding an operation was expected to be launched in the area to dismantle the camps of militants set up in the mountains.
Some sources said the militants also stopped Sindh-bound buses, but they were allowed to leave shortly, adding some passengers who had been taken hostage in mountains were set free later.
“The militants attacked oil tankers to keep the security forces busy and, at the same time, carried out their action,” he said, adding two FC personnel, identified as Abdul Hameed and Asghar, sustained injuries in the shooting.
The dead bodies of the deceased, identified as Ahmed Ali, Shakeel Ahmed, Muhammad Bakhsh, Muhammad Asif, M Aslam, Saqib Ali, Arshad, Shahid, Abdul Malik, M Ashraf, Shaukat Ali and Safir Ahmed, were brought to Civil Hospital Quetta for medico-legal formalities.
Muhammad Yousuf, a relative of a victim, told this scribe in the hospital that the deceased had gone to Iran for labour. “Yesterday we got a seat booked for his travel to Punjab, but today we received his dead body,” he said with tearful eyes.
Majority of the victims were labourers belonging to different parts of the Punjab.
A spokesman for the banned outfit, Baloch Liberation Army, calling media offices from an unspecified location, claimed responsibility for the attack and said 22 passengers and four Levies personnel had been kidnapped. He further claimed that 13 people belonging to security forces and intelligence agencies were killed while Levies personnel and rest of the passengers were set free.
Balochistan Governor Muhammad Khan Achakzai and Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch condemned the incident and ordered the administration to arrest those behind this incident at the earliest.
The Balochistan government also announced that the heirs of the deceased would be compensated.