Just three days after 29 Shia pilgrims were assassinated in Balochistan’s Mastung area, three more members of the minority Hazara Shia community were killed and another four injured in an attack on a passenger van in the outskirts of the provincial capital on Friday. According to details, the passenger van coming from the mountainous town of Machh was attacked by four armed men on two motorcycles just when the vehicle entered Quetta.
The attackers opened indiscriminate fire on the van with automatic weapons, resulting in the killing of two members of the Hazara community and injuries to five others. One of the injured, also a Hazara Shia, succumbed to his injuries at a hospital later. Naseebullah Bazai, the provincial home secretary, confirmed the deaths and called the incident an act of sectarian violence. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
FC BLAST: Meanwhile, personnel of the Frontier Corps Balochistan narrowly escaped a powerful bomb blast in Quetta. The Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack. A FC vehicle carrying bricks escorted by armed personnel was on its way to Mianghundi, 16 kms from Quetta, when a remote-controlled bomb planted at a roadside went off. No one was hurt in the attack as the bomb went off after the vehicles had passed by.
Azad Baloch, a spokesman for the Baloch Liberation Army, told several newspapers over telephone that two FC personnel had been killed in the attack and four had been injured. Azad said that BLA activists killed an FC man and injured three others in an armed attack in Mawand area of Kohlu district. However, the FC rejected the claims.
