Four dead in Quetta gun and bomb attacks

Eight others injured in assaults on barber shop, photographer’s studio; UBF claims responsibility.

QUETTA:

At least four people were killed and eight injured in two near-identical hand grenade and gun attacks on a barber shop and a photographer’s studio in different neighbourhoods of Quetta on Wednesday.

Gunmen riding on a motorcycle hurled a hand grenade followed by indiscriminate fire at the barber shop situated on Double Road in the Langoabad area, police said. Three people were killed and seven wounded in the assault while the assailants escaped unidentified and unchallenged.

Police and security forces reached the spot and threw a security cordon around the area as rescuers shifted the casualties to the Provincial Sandeman Hospital. Medics said the victims received splinter and bullet wounds. The dead were identified as Ghulam Shabir, Shahrukh and Sultan Gul. Two of the injured were also said to be in critical condition.



Police suspect that it could be ethnically motivated attack by groups opposed to the presence of ‘settlers’ from Punjab in Quetta. “We are investigating the incident,” the SHO of Industrial Town police station, told The Express Tribune without giving further details as he was recording statements of the victims at the hospital.

In a near-identical attack, gunmen riding on a motorcycle threw a hand grenade at the studio of a photographer on Sariab Road followed by indiscriminate firing, killing a young man and injuring his uncle. The attackers escaped unidentified and unchallenged. The casualties were driven to the Provincial Sandeman Hospital where the dead was identified as Muhammad Hanif and his uncle as Chaudhry Muhammad Afzal.

A purported spokesperson for the banned United Baloch Front claimed the responsibility for both attacks in a phone call to a Quetta-based news distribution agency. “The UBA will continue to target the anti-Baloch elements,” said the caller who introduced himself as Musa Sarbazi.

Of late there has been an uptick in violence in Balochistan which prompted a call from Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch for improving security in the volatile province.

“The overall law and order situation has improved due to steps taken by the government and law-enforcement agencies (LEAs),” he told a high-level meeting which was convened to review the security situation.

“Improvement of law and order is our top priority and the government is utilising all available resources to improve the capacity of LEAs, and provide latest weapons and vehicles to police and Levies,” he added.

He added that better coordination between law-enforcers and masses, especially traders, is yielding positive results. “The government is committed to implementing its policy of purging police and administration of any political pressure,” he said.


Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2014.