QUETTA: Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Balochistan police have registered FIR of the killing of 22 passengers in Rara Shram area of district Musakhail against unknown militants, on Wednesday.
The case has been registered by CTD Loralai on behalf of the Station House Officer (SHO) CTD under anti-terrorist act and other clauses of the Pakistan penal code.
According to the FIR, the SHO counter Terrorism Department Loralai said that on the night of August 25, he heard huge blasts and heavy firing. He said that under SOPs he went on the roof of the police station, he saw continuing heavy firing and blasts till 3 Am.
He further said in the FIR that after reaching additional forces, when he went to the site saw the blood stained bodies of bus passengers and truck drivers. He said that 22 people were killed and 5 others were injured in blasts and firing, which included three security personnel and other people traveling in the passage buses.
The majority of dead and injured belonged to different areas of Punjab, while two victims of firing were from Duki and Loralai. He added in his statement that around two dozen vehicles were damaged. He further said that on the night of 25 and 26 August terrorist incidents took place in 10 districts of Balochistan but in Musakhail killing was the biggest incident of human loss.
The armed men blocked the Loralai-Dera Ghazi highway and intercepted passenger buses at Rara Shram area of Musakhail district and after identifying passengers belong to Punjab offloaded 27 people and later opened firing on them, resulting killing of 23 passengers and injured 5 others as confirmed by the SSP Musakhail Ayub Achakzai.
As per BBC report, In Musa Khel district, one of the buses that was stopped had a woman from Pakpattan, Punjab, traveling with her two children and husband. She told a local journalist in an interview when the bus stopped, everyone’s ID cards were taken away, and then they were told to ‘Those from Punjab should come out.’
BBC also reported Abdul Shakoor, a citizen from Duki district of Balochistan, was also present in the same bus, traveling to Punjab for some work. He said that around 10:45 pm, their bus was stopped by armed men who asked the conductor to quietly collect everyone’s ID cards and get off the bus. ‘After that, the armed men said that people from Punjab should get off, and then five or six people got off the bus.’ He stated that around five women and children were also sent to the mosque, while the men escaped towards nearby hills and bushes.
Between the night of August 25 and 26 militants conducted armed attacks in 10 districts of Balochistan but big attacks took place in Musakhail, Kalat, Lasbela, Mastung, and Kolpur area of Kachhi district. Armed men also attacked levies and police stations in Mustang, Kalat, Pasni, Suntsar and Jeweni of Gwadar district. In Bela area of Lasbela district A Frontier Corps Camp was attacked where suicide attacks were conducted and suicide bombers include a female.
Bodies of truck drivers and other people were also recovered from Kolpur and Kalat, In Kalat 11 people were killed including four levies personnel and a police officer. The armed militants blocked many highways, including Quetta-Karachi, Coastal highway, CPEC highway, Loralai-Dera Ghazi Khan highway
The banned outfit Baloch liberation Army (BLA) had claimed responsibility for these attacks and killing of passengers belonging to Punjab. Spokesman for banned militant organization said that the Majeed Brigade of BLA has conducted suicide attacks. It happened on the 18th anniversary of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, who was killed on August 26, 2006 in a military operation in the Tartani area of Kohlu district.
The Balochistan government has taken strict security measures deploying more security forces across the province and decided to enhance the capability of police and levies with training and providing modern weapons to cope with such situations in future.
In a high level meeting which was held here the day with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in the chair he took important decisions in this regard and decided to change the IG police Balochistan.
Whereas, it is worth noting that on the morning of August 26, an explosion occurred at the gate of a security forces camp in Bela, after a car crashed into it. In the attack one of the two one of the two suicide bombers was a 23 year old woman named Mahal Baloch from Surbandar area of Gwadar.
According to a statement issued by the banned militant organization, Operation Herof began with Mahal Baloch’s car crash. The Balochistan Police have confirmed that a woman was also involved in the suicide attack on the FC camp in Bela.
According to BBC Mahal’s family has said that she was a student of LLB and that they were unaware of her affiliation with any militant organization and the news was a shock to them. Mahal’s class fellows told BBC they could not suspect her to be part of militancy.
Mahil Baloch did her FA from Degree College Gwadar and then enrolled in LLB at Turbat University where she was a final semester student. She belonged to a political family of Gwadar. Her father Hameed Baloch has served as chairman of the Sarbandar Union Council for several terms, while her uncle has served twice as district nazim of Gwadar. One of Mahil’s uncles is also a government official.
Hameed and his elder brother belong to the National Party. His father joined the National Awami Party and was a disciple of Mir Ghos Bakhsh Bizenjo. “She was studying law and was in her eighth semester at that time,” Mahil’s father told the BBC. Hameed has six children of which Mahil was the fifth. He said that “Mahal was doing an internship for the practice of law in Quetta during the summer holidays where her cousins were also present.”
Mahil Baloch’s Instagram content includes ‘The Art of War’, a translation of Cuba’s Fidel Castro’s book ‘History will absolve me’, Maxim Gorky’s world-famous novel ‘Mother’ and books by Franz Kafka among others. Mahil’s father Hameed says that he himself is surprised to see this because “Balochi literature is read at home, the rest were only English textbooks.” He said he didn’t know from where where Mahil got those books.