Gunmen abduct, Kill 22 bus passengers in PAK attack

Agencies

Islamabad, 31 May 2015: Gunmen disguised as members of Pakistani security forces killed at least 22 passengers on Friday night after forcing them off buses travelling from Quetta to Karachi. The assault, in the province of Baluchistan, occurred in the town of Mastung, around 40 km of Quetta.

 

"Fifteen to 20 armed men in three pickup trucks and wearing security uniforms kidnapped around 35 passengers," Sarfaraz Bugti, Baluchistan’s home minister, told Reuters. He said the bodies of 22 passengers were later found around two km away from the Quetta-Karachi Highway in foothills. Seven of the assailants have been killed in an operation involving hundreds of soldiers and police, he added.

 

 

The circumstances of the passengers’ deaths could not immediately be established and the motives of the assailants were unclear.

 

Officials in Mastung said a major operation involving four helicopter gunships and around 500 security personnel on the ground was under way to hunt down the remaining assailants believed to be hiding in mountainous terrain.

 

In Quetta, where the bodies of the slain passengers were taken, hundreds of people gathered outside the governor’s house and staged a protest over the lack of security in Baluchistan. Among the demonstrators were relatives of 16 of the victims, whose bodies were laid out in a line wrapped in cloth.