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April 19, 2019

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Gunmen kill 14 passengers in Pakistan

Unidentified gunmen killed 14 people in southwestern Pakistan after pulling them from several passenger buses, sifting through their identity cards and kidnapping them, a Pakistani official said yesterday.

A Baluch insurgent group has claimed responsibility.

Fighters of Baloch Raji Aajoi Saangar carried out the killings, said the group, which described itself as an umbrella body of three Baluch separatist movements in the region, but denied that ordinary passengers had been targeted.

“Those who were targeted carried cards of the Pakistan Navy and coast guards, and they were only killed after they were identified,” a Baluch Khan group spokesman said.

The passengers were travelling on a coastal highway from the financial hub of Karachi towards Gwadar, the Arabian Sea port town.

Southwestern Baluchistan province has long been plagued by violence and a stubborn insurgency, with several separatist groups operating in a region.

Security has improved across much of Pakistan in recent years but Baluchistan is still plagued by attacks, a major source of concern for Pakistani officials who fear it will disrupt the plans for a transport corridor running through the province.

Baluchistan Home Minister Ziaullah Langove said the dead passengers had their legs and hands tied and were found close to the town of Ormara, about halfway between Karachi and Gwadar.

“Terrorists off-loaded 14 people from different buses after checking their NICs,” Langove said, referring to Pakistani national identity cards. “They took them and killed them.”




 

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