Seven killed in Kalat highway attack

QUETTA: Seven people, including a local tribal elder, were killed and three injured in an ambush on the RCD Highway in the Surab area of Kalat district on Tuesday night, police sources said.

Gunmen opened indiscriminate fire on a vehicle carrying 10 persons to the village of Anjera on RCD highway in the Naghad area, police sources told The Express Tribune. As result of the firing, five people, among them tribal elder Mir Abdul Aziz Zehri, died on the spot and as many sustained multiple bullet wounds.

Police rushed to the site and shifted the casualties to the Civil Hospital Surab where two of the injured succumbed to their injuries. The remaining injured are also in critical condition, medics said.

Police have cordoned off the area following the incident and mounted a manhunt for culprits.

The incident was the result of an old tribal feud, police sources told The Express Tribune. Tension gripped the Zehri tribal area following the incident.

Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani strongly condemned the incident and directed law-enforcement agencies to trace and arrest the culprits. He said his government would spare no efforts in arresting the culprits.

In other violence, an explosive device blew up in Turbat, killing one man, police said, adding that the identity of the slain person could not be ascertained.

Spokesperson for the outlawed Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), Doda Khan, said the man belonged to his organisation, identifying him as Qadeer Ahmed. He said that Ahmed was on a BLF mission. Following the explosion, police tightened security at the airport and adjoining areas, DSP Turbat Mohammad Ali said.

In another incident, armed men barged into a shop on Brewery Road in the Kili Ibrahimzai area of Quetta and opened indiscriminate fire, killing the shopkeeper, witnessed said.

Police rushed to the spot soon after the incident and took the deceased, 55-year-old Shaukat Qureshi, to the Bolan Medical College Teaching Hospital.

Earlier on Monday, a shopkeeper was killed in Naushki, some 250 kilometres from Quetta. The victim, identified as Faiz Badech, succumbed to his injuries while being shifted to Quetta for treatment, officials said.  The BLA spokesperson claimed responsibility for killings of both shopkeepers.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2010.