Pakistan: Gunmen abduct, kill nine bus passengers
Lahore, Pakistan - Unidentified gunmen shot dead at least nine people hailing from Punjab after abducting them from a passenger bus in Noshki, officials said. Another attack on a separate vehicle killed one person and injured four, Dawn reported.
“About 10-12 gunmen blockaded the Quetta-taftan Highway N-40 in the vicinity of Sultan Charhai near Noshki and abducted nine passengers from a bus,” Deputy Commissioner Habibullah Musakhel told Dawn.com.
According to the media outlet gunmen halted a bus bound for Taftan, checking the identity cards of passengers before abducting and subsequently killing them, he added.
Dawnnewstv reported that the bodies of the abducted passengers were found under a bridge nearby. It’s unclear whether their belongings were taken. According to Noshki Station House Officer Asad Mengal, the nine victims hailed from Punjab province.
In another incident on the same highway, they opened fire on a car when it did not stop due to which one person was killed and four others were wounded. The casualties occurred because the vehicle overturned, Station House Officer (SHO) said, as per Dawn.
One of the car’s passengers was a brother of Provincial Assembly member Ghulam Dastgir Badini, the SHO added.
Dawn.com’s correspondent was able to confirm that both attacks were carried out at the same blockade. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack and sought a report into the incident. He expressed his condolences to the victims’ families, saying: “We stand with the bereaved families in this hour of grief.”
The premier said the perpetrators of this incident of terrorism and their facilitators will be punished. He also reaffirmed his commitment to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the root. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Balochistan Mir Sarfraz Bugti expressed grief and sorrow over the sad incident. He said terrorists would be dealt with iron hands. He said terrorists would be dealt with iron hands and vowed that terrorists would not succeed in their nefarious designs..