PAKISTAN-ATTACK/UPDATE Gunmen kill 19 bus passengers in Pakistan attack

Record ID: 149555

  • Title: PAKISTAN-ATTACK/UPDATE Gunmen kill 19 bus passengers in Pakistan attack
  • Date: 30th May 2015
  • Summary: MASTUNG, PAKISTAN (MAY 30, 2015) (REUTERS) **** WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **** AMBULANCE ARRIVING AT LOCAL HOSPITAL WITH DEAD BODIES RESCUE WORKERS TAKING DEAD BODIES ON STRETCHERS RELATIVES OF VICTIMS AND RESCUE WORKERS STANDING BESIDE DEAD BODIES LYING IN HOSPITAL CLOSE OF DEAD BODY RESCUE WORKERS, RELATIVES STANDING PEOPLE TRYING TO CONSOLE CRYING RELATIVE OF V
  • Embargoed: 14th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA10D0OUTTTMIGBWBIK1O8KO9J7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Gunmen killed at least 19 passengers they had forced off buses traveling from the western Pakistani city of Quetta to Karachi on the southern coast, said the home minister for the restive province of Baluchistan, where the attack took place.
    The assault occurred late on Friday in the town of Mastung, around 40 km south of Quetta.
    Sarfaraz Bugti told Reuters the armed men were wearing uniforms of the security forces.
    "Today the blitz of barbarity that the terrorists unleashed, the killing of Pashtuns that they carried out, this is a sign of their frustration. The origins of this attack can be traced to RAW (top Indian spy agency)," Bugti said.
    The bodies of 19 passengers had been found so far, he said.
    Security officials said around 25 passengers were taken off two buses, and an operation began to find them. The bodies were discovered in nearby hills, the officials said.
    The circumstances of their deaths could not immediately be established, and the motives of the assailants was unclear.
    Separatists have been fighting a low-intensity insurgency in Baluchistan, of which Quetta is the capital, for decades. They are demanding an end to what they see as the exploitation of their resources by people from other parts of Pakistan.
    Islamist militants also regularly attack civilian and military targets, and earlier this month at least 43 commuters were killed on a bus in Karachi by a group that has declared allegiance to Islamic State.
    All of the victims in that attack were Ismailis from Pakistan's minority Shi'ite community, but one security official said the Mastung incident was unlikely to have been a sectarian attack.
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