Balochistan government on Thursday ordered an inquiry into the killing by security forces of five Chechens, including three women, after media said they had been unarmed. The group was killed this week, with authorities saying they were al-Qaeda-linked suicide bombers.
On Tuesday, the paramilitary Frontier Corps and police gunned down five Chechens near a security checkpoint on the outskirts of Quetta, saying explosives were strapped to their bodies and they were attempting to attack government forces. But the media raised doubts over statements by security forces, with television footage showing a wounded woman waving her hand in the air before her death.
“CM Raisani has ordered an inquiry after media reports raised doubts about the whole incident,” a provincial government spokesman said. Two officials of a bomb disposal squad which searched the bodies after the shooting told this scribe that they found no explosives strapped to the bodies of the Chechens. “They were unarmed and had no suicide jackets or explosives with them,” one of the officials said.
“Five valid and two expired Russian passports were found in a ladies’ handbag lying with the bodies,” the second official said. A witness earlier this week said the five had got out of a vehicle and were chased by police before they were shot.