10 killed in passenger vehicle attack in Balochistan, Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) — At least ten people were killed and eight others injured when a passenger vehicle was attacked on Saturday morning in Pakistan’s southwest province of Balochistan, according to local media reports.
According to the reports, the attack took place when some unknown gunmen opened fire at a passenger bus indiscriminately with automatic weapons near Mach, a city southeast of Quetta, capital of Balochistan province.
All the killed and injured people have been shifted to the Civil Hospital Quetta. Hospital sources said that some of the injured are in critical condition.
Police has cordoned off the area where the attack occurred and launched a search operation there.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
Saturday’s terrorist attack is the third of its kind in Balochistan within two days’ time and also one of the most serious terrorist attacks ever reported in the country since the end-July when the country was hit by heavy monsoon rains and serious floods.
On Friday, two separate terrorist attacks were reported in the province’s capital city of Quetta, in which four policemen were killed and at least two others were injured.
Local watchers believe the three terrorist attacks in Balochistan could be an retaliation for the arrest of two main suspects involved in the killing of a leader of a local party BNP in July, which was announced earlier on Friday by the police department in Quetta.
Analysts here further pointed out with the flood water expected to recede in the next couple of weeks more terrorist activities could appear in the country, which has witnessed a respite of terrorist attacks for a couple of weeks due to the flooding across the country.