Nine bus passengers were killed by gunmen in Balochistan, Pakistan. The incident occurred when armed assailants kidnapped them from multiple buses on Thursday evening, according to a report by Al Jazeera.
The bus was travelling from Balochistan to central Punjab. The travellers were reportedly targeted because of their Punjabi ethnicity, it added.
The bodies with bullet wounds were discovered in the mountains overnight, the report quoted Naveed Alam, a government official.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi acknowledged the incident and vehemently condemned the killings. “The blood of innocent people will be avenged. The killing of innocent citizens is an open act of terrorism by India-sponsored terrorists,” Sharif was quoted.
India did not immediately react to his statement, and no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
President Zardari blames the Balochistan Liberation Army
The President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, condemned the “brutal killing of passengers” in Balochistan, AP reported, citing his statement. He held the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) responsible for the killings and stated that the group aimed to “spread chaos and instability in Pakistan.”
The BLA, a group of separatist Baloch fighters, has previously carried out similar incidents in which passengers were killed after being identified as coming from the eastern Punjab province.
Last year, the BLA killed 23 passengers in Balochistan, AP reported. However, the militant group issued a statement on Thursday night and said that they were involved in an attack on a military camp in the Surab district of Balochistan, far from the areas of the bus attacks.
The BLA is the most powerful among several groups involved in a rebellion, which for years has operated in the mineral-rich area bordering Afghanistan and Iran. The ethnic Baloch fighters reportedly accuse the authorities in Pakistan of diverting their regional resources to fund Punjab province.
