Two devotees killed in Kohlu ambush

Five others, including a religious scholar, killed in Quetta.

QUETTA:

Two devotees were killed and nine others – including women and children – were wounded when armed men ambushed their vehicle in Kohlu district of Balochistan on Saturday.

“A family was travelling back after paying their respects at Mast Tawakli Darbar, a shrine in the Tumbo area when armed men ambushed the pickup van they were in,” a police official told The Express Tribune. As a result, two men – Bahdur Shah and Bawal Khan – were killed on the spot. “Three teenage girls and a woman were among the injured,” the official added.

The casualties were taken to a local hospital. Witnesses said four masked men appeared on motorbikes and opened indiscriminate fire at the pickup.

In other incidents, two men – Gul Ahmed Durrani and Adam Khan – were shot dead by gunmen in the Chaki Shawani area on Saryab Road, Quetta. The killers intercepted a milk-supplying vehicle, pulled down two men and shot them dead, police sources said.

A man identified as Jamil Rind was shot dead by gunmen in the Hudda area of Quetta. Police termed the incident ‘a case of an old enmity’.

Separately, a woman identified as Asia Bibi was found dead at her residence in the Kashmirabad area of Quetta.

Religious scholar shot dead

A religious scholar was gunned down by gunmen on Kasi Road in Quetta. According to witnesses, Qari Abdul Basit, the son of a well-known religious scholar Maulvi Abdul Samad, was on his way to a mosque when gunmen on a motorbike sprayed him with bullets, before fleeing the scene.

Basit was rushed to the Sandeman Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2012.