Six killed, three abducted by Baloch separatists in Gwadar bus attack

Insurgents shot dead six people and abducted three after stopping a bus in Balochistan, and offloading passengers from Pakistan's Punjab. In another terror attack in the province, three people were killed and 17 injured after a bomb exploded near a police vehicle, officials said.

The two attacks come a fortnight after the banned separatist outfit Balochistan Liberation Army laid siege to a train in the Bolan district and killed 26 hostages, including 18 security personnel.

The bus attack occurred in the Gwadar district when armed men stopped a Karachi-bound passenger bus near the Kalmat area on the Ormara highway late on Wednesday, said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Hafeez Baloch.

 

The gunmen offloaded some passengers and shot six people, five of whom were killed instantly while one survivor passed away later in the hospital Thursday morning.

Armed men killed six passengers after checking their ID cards and took away three others, he said, adding that all victims belonged to the country's Punjab province.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but in the past, ethnic Baloch terrorist groups carried out such targeted attacks against the people of Punjab.

In a separate terror incident, a bomb exploded near a police vehicle in the Barech Market area of Quetta on Thursday, killing three people and injuring 17 others.

Balochistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind said that an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was hidden in a motorcycle which detonated near a parked police vehicle.

Police surgeon Dr Ayesha Faiz said that three people were killed and another 21 injured, including four policemen.

Four injured persons are in a critical condition, he said.

However, the interior ministry confirmed only two deaths in a statement.

Video footage showed people gathering at the scene of the blast, with the flaming wreckage of the motorcycle next to the charred police pickup truck.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the blast but the Balochistan Liberation Army has been involved in several attacks on the security forces in the province.

The attacks were condemned by the country's top leadership.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the killing of passengers.

The terrorists are the enemies of the country's development and prosperity in Balochistan. They cannot see progress in Balochistan, Zardari said.

Shehbaz ordered that the injured be provided with the best possible medical treatment and that an investigation be carried out to identify and punish the perpetrators. We will never allow the anti-state designs of miscreants to succeed, he said.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti took to X to condemn the incident and said, Offloading innocent passengers from a bus and murdering them based on their identity is a heinous and cowardly act.

He pledged that the war against hardcore terrorists would continue and they would be brought to justice by all means.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the blast and expressed sorrow over the deaths.

The forces of the enemy are targeting Balochistan. We will thwart this heinous conspiracy meant to create instability, he said in a statement.

Militants also stopped three long-body trailers carrying urea from Gwadar port by setting up roadblocks and setting them on fire.

Security forces moved towards the area where militants had blocked highways, with operations to clear the roads underway.

In a separate incident in the Sohbat area of the Naseerabad division in the province, armed men attacked a residence and killed seven people of the same family including a woman and three children.

Police said the brutal killings were the result of a land dispute between two groups.

Insurgents have stepped up their attacks on security forces and civilians in recent months and it is not the first time that militants have stopped passenger buses and offloaded people from Punjab province and killed or kidnapped them.

The attacks come amid a tense situation in the province following the hijacking of the Jaffar Express, which was carrying 440 passengers. The hijacking resulted in the killing of 26 hostages, including 18 security personnel.

The Army eliminated all 33 terrorists the next day and rescued 354 hostages.

Since then, multiple attacks have taken place across Balochistan.

Earlier this week, unidentified armed men killed four policemen and four labourers in two separate incidents.

On March 17, five people including four children were injured in a grenade attack on the residence of a Station House Officer (SHO) in the province.

A day earlier, five people, including three Frontier Corps (FC) personnel, were killed and 30 injured after a paramilitary convoy was attacked by suspected Baloch militants on a highway in Noshki district.

Bordering Iran and Afghanistan, Balochistan is home to a long-running violent insurgency.

Baloch insurgent groups frequently carry out attacks targeting security personnel, government projects and the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in this oil and mineral-rich province.