Bombs kills 3 in Baluchistan

Bus crash kills at least 26

QUETTA, Pakistan, Nov 9, (RTRS): A suicide bomber killed a senior Pakistani police official on his way to work and two others on Thursday in the restive southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said.

Baluchistan was rocked by a series of attacks late last year that claimed over 180 lives and raised concerns about a growing militant presence, including fighters affiliated with Islamic State, which has claimed several bombings in the province.

The violence has raised concerns about security for projects in the $57 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a planned transport and energy link from western China to Pakistan’s southern deep-water port of Gwadar.

“Three individuals have embraced martyrdom including (Additional Inspector General) Hamid Shakeel and his driver,” provincial government spokesman Anwar Ul Haq Kakar told Reuters.

A spokesman for the Tehreek-eTaliban, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Shakil was on his way to work in the provincial capital, Quetta, when the suicide bomber intercepted his vehicle, Baluchistan police Inspector General Moazzam Jah told Reuters.

One other police officer was killed and three officials were seriously wounded, he added.

Attacks on security officials in Baluchistan have accelerated, with four suicide bombings and one armed attack targeting police in the past six months.

At least 26 people were killed and 46 others injured when a passenger bus plunged into a ravine in northern Pakistan, police said Thursday.

The crash took place near Dhok Pathan village, some 115 kms (70 miles) southwest of the capital Islamabad late Wednesday.

“At least 26 people have died and 46 others were injured when a passenger bus lost control at a slope and veered off into a deep ravine,” local police official Fazal Abbas told AFP.

The bus was carrying members of Tableeghi Jamaat — a Sunni evangelical group — from the northwestern town of Kohat to the eastern city of Raiwind, near Lahore where their annual gathering was taking place, he added.

Discharged

Abbas said that most of the injured were discharged from hospital after receiving medical treatment, but at least 10 seriously wounded passengers were sent to Rawalpindi, a garrison city adjoining the capital Islamabad.

Officials added that the bus was not driving on its usual route when it crashed and was plying hilly roads after another motorway had been closed due to dense fog and traffic.

A local government official confirmed the accident and toll.

Pakistan has one of the world’s worst records for fatal traffic accidents, many of them blamed on poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.

Aasia Bibi had warned her parents time and again that if they forced her to marry her cousin, a man she disliked, she would be capable of going to any length to exit the union. She was already in a relationship, she said, and should be allowed to marry the man of her choice.

Now, investigators in this tiny, remote island village in central Pakistan believe the recently married 21-year-old was enticed by her boyfriend in a plot to kill her husband, Mohammad Amjad, by poisoning his milk with rat killer. Amjad did not drink the milk, but his mother used the tainted liquid the following day to make a traditional yogurt drink that she then tragically served to 27 family members, including Amjad.

Amjad and 17 others were sickened and subsequently died at a district hospital, including eight children aged 7 to 12. Among the dead were Amjad’s two brothers, his three sisters-in-law and some distant relatives.

“I repeatedly asked my parents not to marry me against my will as my religion, Islam, also allows me to choose the man of my choice for marriage but my parents rejected all of my pleas and they married me to a relative,” Bibi told a judge at her initial hearing Oct. 31 following her arrest.

Aasia Bibi and her boyfriend Shahid Lashari were charged with murder and are scheduled to return to court Nov 14. Pakistani police said Wednesday they also arrested Bibi’s aunt, 49-yearold Zarina Begum, for her involvement in the alleged plot.

Local police chief Zulfiqar Ali said the deaths quickly drew the attention of police, who quietly began an investigation and were able to expose the plot. He said Aasia Bibi was among those who did not drink the traditional Lassi, which is made with water and yogurt.

“Her husband was in critical condition at a hospital and she looked as if nothing had happened and she was cool and calm at her home and it raised suspicions,” he said.

Ali said police first arrested Lashari and he confessed to supplying the rat poison to his girlfriend. He said Lashari also told officers that Bibi’s aunt, who used to arrange for the couple to meet at her home, was aware of the plot to kill Amjad.

Ali said that before detaining Aasia Bibi, police collected her cell phone data enabling investigators to surmise that she was in constant contact with Lashari after the attempted poisoning. He said Bibi confessed to her role in the killings upon seeing Lashari in hand-cuffs at a police station.