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Pakistan: Bomb attack kills 17 in Pakistan, soldiers found dead

30-12-2012

A bomb attack on a bus carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims in southwestern Pakistan has killed at least 17 people. Meanwhile, police were searching for the killers of 21 police officers who were kidnapped and shot dead.

The car bomb attack was reported to have hit a convey of three buses some 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the city of Quetta in Baluchistan province.

Government official Tufail Ahmed said some 20 people had been injured. The incident is believed to have occurred as the buses overtook the car carrying the explosives.

One of buses is understood to have been completely destroyed while a second bus was also badly damaged.

"The bus next to us caught on fire immediately," 60-year-old pilgrim Hussein Ali, who had been travelling on the second bus, told the Reuters news agency. "We tried to save our companions but were driven back by the intensity of the heat."

One unnamed eyewitness, who had also been aboard the second vehicle, told the Pakistani television channel Geo TV that the pilgrims had been on their way to neighboring Iran, a majority Shiite country. There was no claim of responsibility for the incident.

Baluchistan has become increasingly troubled with sectarian violence between the Sunni and Shiite communities, with the minority Shiites accounting for a fifth of Pakistan's population.

Pakistani police on Sunday blamed Taliban militants for the execution of 21 members of paramilitary forces who were kidnapped by armed raiders.

The bodies of the officers, who were captured late last week, were left on a cricket ground near to the city of Peshawar.

The men were tied up and blindfolded before being shot one-by-one, according to senior Khyber administration official Naveed Abbas.

rc/jlw (dpa, Reuters)


http://www.dw.de/bomb-attack-kills-17-in-pakistan-soldiers-found-dead/a-16487987

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