16 Punjabis killed in Balochistan attacks

QUETTA At least 16 Punjabi-speaking persons, including two security personnel, were shot dead while five others wounded in two separate incidents of target killings in Bolan District and Quetta on Saturday. The Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for both the incidents. Unidentified armed assailants intercepted a passenger coach that was travelling to Quetta from Lahore at Aab-e-Gum area of Bolan District, some 60 kilometres southeast of Quetta on the night between Friday and Saturday. They asked all the passengers to show their identity cards. Sources said that after identifying 12 passengers as residents of Punjab, the attackers separated them from rest of the passengers and took them to nearby mountains where they opened indiscriminate firing on them. As a result, 10 of them died on the spot and two others received serious wounds. The assassins fled the scene after committing the crime under the cover of darkness. On getting information, personnel of Levis Force and Frontier Corps reached the site and cordoned off the area. The deceased and injured were shifted to Bolan Medical Complex Hospital Quetta, Civil Hospital and CMH. Five victims have been identified as Syed Fakhar, Maqsood Ahmed, Mudasir Ali and Muhammad Waris while the injured were identified as Sajjad, Bilal Arshad, Palwan, Mital Khan and Altaf Hussain. The sources said that two victims belonged to security forces. However, Home Secretary Balochistan Akbar Hussain Durrani denied reports that two security personnel died in the attack. Official sources said that bodies were moved to BMCH morgue and after completing legal formalities, they would be sent to their native towns after their identification. Talking to newsmen, Bilal Arash, 25, who was also injured in the incident, said that a group of armed men held all passengers at gunpoint and started checking their identity cards. They separated 12 people hailing from Punjab, including me and asked whether we belonged to security forces or agencies, he said and added that later they took us to mountains and opened fire. Bilal said that he received bullet on his shoulder and fell down and after being satisfied that all were dead, the attackers escaped from the site. I reached the highway and informed Levis about the incident, he added. In yet another tragic incident, six labourers were shot dead and three others injured when gunmen opened fire at them in Khilji Colony in the limits of Satellite Town police station in Quetta on Saturday afternoon. Police said a group of labourers was residing at a rented house in Khilji Colony when some armed assailants barged into the house and sprayed volley of bullets at them. As a result of intense firing, six labourers, including Muhammad Suleman, Abdul Rehman, Muhammad Idress and Muhammad Siddiq succumbed to their injures before reaching the hospital while three others sustained serious wounds. The injured and the dead were shifted to Civil Hospital. Police sources said that it was a case of target killing and added that the victims who belonged to Punjab had come to Quetta in search of work and due to Independence Day, they were at the house. Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, expressing grief over the incidents, directed the administration to probe the incidents and sought early arrest of miscreants.