Gunmen abduct and kill 9 passengers from 2 buses in southwestern Pakistan
Attack occurs on highway between Quetta and Punjab province; no group claims responsibility.
Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan abducted and killed nine people after stopping two passenger buses on a highway Thursday night, officials said.
The overnight attacks occurred in the Zhob and Loralai districts of Balochistan province as the buses traveled from the provincial capital, Quetta, to Punjab province, district administrator Saadat Husain reported on Friday.
The attackers fled the scene and a search is underway to track down the assailants.
Authorities recovered the bodies along the highway, Husain said.
Ashfaq Chaudhry, an administrator in Punjab’s Dera Ghazi Khan district, added that the attackers appeared to target passengers from Punjab specifically.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the abduction and killings of the bus passengers.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari issued a statement condemning the "brutal killing of passengers" in Balochistan.
He blamed the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) for the deaths, stating that the group aimed to spread chaos and instability in Pakistan.
The BLA had previously killed 23 passengers in a similar attack in Balochistan last year.
However, on Thursday night, the militant group issued a statement claiming they were engaged in an attack on a military camp in Balochistan’s Surab district, far away from the areas of the bus attacks.
Baluchistan has been plagued by a long-running insurgency with various separatist groups demanding independence from Pakistan’s central government in Islamabad.
These groups primarily target security forces and individuals from Punjab who travel to Balochistan for business or employment.
Despite Pakistani authorities claiming they have quelled the insurgency, violence persists in the province.
The Pakistani government has also accused India of supporting the Pakistani Taliban and Baloch insurgents.
The overnight attacks occurred in the Zhob and Loralai districts of Balochistan province as the buses traveled from the provincial capital, Quetta, to Punjab province, district administrator Saadat Husain reported on Friday.
The attackers fled the scene and a search is underway to track down the assailants.
Authorities recovered the bodies along the highway, Husain said.
Ashfaq Chaudhry, an administrator in Punjab’s Dera Ghazi Khan district, added that the attackers appeared to target passengers from Punjab specifically.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the abduction and killings of the bus passengers.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari issued a statement condemning the "brutal killing of passengers" in Balochistan.
He blamed the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) for the deaths, stating that the group aimed to spread chaos and instability in Pakistan.
The BLA had previously killed 23 passengers in a similar attack in Balochistan last year.
However, on Thursday night, the militant group issued a statement claiming they were engaged in an attack on a military camp in Balochistan’s Surab district, far away from the areas of the bus attacks.
Baluchistan has been plagued by a long-running insurgency with various separatist groups demanding independence from Pakistan’s central government in Islamabad.
These groups primarily target security forces and individuals from Punjab who travel to Balochistan for business or employment.
Despite Pakistani authorities claiming they have quelled the insurgency, violence persists in the province.
The Pakistani government has also accused India of supporting the Pakistani Taliban and Baloch insurgents.
