Armed men kidnap, kill nine Pakistani bus passengers
QUETTA, Pakistan: Pakistan's authorities retrieved the bullet-ridden bodies of nine bus passengers kidnapped by insurgents in a spate of attacks on buses in the mountainous southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said on Friday. The separatist Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) claimed the killings of the nine laborers, saying that they were involved in spying for Pakistani intelligence agencies. Baloch separatists, who have been demanding a greater share of resources, have played a role in similar past killings of those identified as hailing from the eastern province of Punjab.
Government official Naveed Alam said the bodies with bullet wounds were found in the mountains overnight, while a provincial government spokesman, Shahid Rind, said the passengers were seized from two buses on Thursday evening. 'We are identifying the bodies and reaching out to their families,' he said, adding that the victims, working as laborers in the restive region, were returning home to Punjab.
They include two brothers who were going to attend the funeral of their father, Alam said. Ethnic insurgents accuse Pakistan's government of stealing regional resources to fund expenditure elsewhere, mainly in the sprawling province of Punjab. Security forces foiled three insurgent attacks on Thursday before the kidnappings, Rind said, accusing India of backing the militants.
The Indian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. New Delhi denies accusations by Islamabad that it is funding, training and backing the militants in a bid to stoke instability in the region, where Pakistan relies on China among international investors to develop mines and mineral processing.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the strongest among the insurgent groups long operating in the area bordering Afghanistan and Iran, a mineral-rich region. In recent months, separatists have stepped up their attacks, mostly targeting Pakistan's military, which has launched an intelligence-based offensive against them. Their other main targets have been Chinese nationals and interests, in particular the strategic port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, with the separatists accusing Beijing of helping Islamabad to exploit resources. The BLA blew up a railway track and took over 400 train passengers hostage in an attack in March that killed 31. – Reuters
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