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Two major terror incidents rock Balochistan

By Agencies
November 16, 2017

QUETTA: Two major terror incidents rocked Balochistan on Wednesday as Superintendent of Police (SP) Muhammad Illyas, his wife, son and a grandson were martyred in firing by unknown militants in the Nawan Kali area of Quetta, while bodies of 15 kidnapped illegal migrants were found in the Kech district of the province.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Police Abdul Razzaq Cheema told a private news channel that armed men sprayed bullets on the vehicle of SP Muhammad Ilyas (Investigation), Quetta City, due to which he, his wife, son Adeel and six-year-old grandson were martyred. A two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter of the SP and a passer-by were also injured in the attack.

Rescue officials said the injured were shifted to the trauma centre of the Civil Hospital in Quetta. Abdul Razzaq Cheema said the assailants sped away on their motorcycle after the attack. Police and personnel of Frontier Corps (FC) reached the spot soon after the attack and started an investigation. 

The attack comes a week after another senior officer was killed in a suicide attack in the city. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack but militant and separatist groups have targeted police in the province in the past.

Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Khan Zehri, while condemning the attack, instructed the relevant authorities to ensure the arrest of attackers.  Earlier, officials recovered the bullet-riddled bodies of 15 illegal migrants near the Iranian border.

Levies personnel found the bodies in the mountainous area of Buleda Tehsil, district Kech. Commissioner Makran Division Bashir Ahmed said these bodies were found on Tuesday night. They were trying to go out of the country illegally. Armed men removed them from their vehicle and shot them dead.

The commissioner said all the deceased were young and belonged to different areas of Punjab. Levies sources said that all the bodies were shifted to the Civil Hospital, Turbat. Eleven bodies were identified while four were yet to be identified. Two of the victims were less than 20 years of age and other two were around 35 years old. The victims were identified as Muhammad Hussain (Wah Cantt), Azhar Waqas, Khurram Shahzad and Zulfiqar (Mandi Bahauddin), Ghulam Rabbani (Wazirabad), Ahsan Raza (Gujranwala), Saifullah (Gujrat), Muhammad Ilyas (Daska), Abdul Ghafoor and Tayyab (Sialkot). Levies sources said that those killed were the people who very often tried to go to European countries via Iran. The route on which they had been martyred is used by such people. 

Thousands of Pakistanis enter Iran from Pakistan illegally on their way to Europe and Gulf countries. Human smuggling via Balochistan to European and Gulf countries could not be stopped completely.

"We're getting in contact with the families of the victims," the commissioner said.  A police official said all the 15 were reported to have been kidnapped on Tuesday. No one has claimed responsibility. President Mamnoon Hussain strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Quetta.

The president conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims and said that attacking police personnel and other people was a cowardly act, which could not be tolerated. He said the terrorists would be taken to task to ensure the protection of life and property of masses and restore peace in the country.