Dozens held after Quetta ambush

Police made more than two dozen arrests on Friday after Baloch militants shot dead 10 security personnel in southwest Pakistan, hours after a visit by a top US diplomat, officials said.

US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher had stopped in Quetta on Thursday afternoon for talks on improving security along the border with Afghanistan.

The Balochistan Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for the ambush on Thursday night. The attackers pumped bullets into the back of an open van carrying soldiers returning from home leave in other parts of the country, leaving bodies piled up in a blood-stained heap, a eyewitness said.

Eight soldiers and a policeman were killed instantly and four people were injured. One of the injured died in hospital overnight, said doctor Ghulam Haider of the Quetta Civil Hospital.

The attack happened directly outside the city’s railway station. Police said up to four attackers followed the victims in a car and fled after the attack. Senior police officer Rahul Khan Brohi told AFP that 17 people had been arrested in raids overnight. “They are being interrogated,” Brohi said. More arrests were expected as raids continued Friday, he added.

“We launched the attack to avenge the killings of our innocent people in military operations, including bombing raids,” Balochistan Liberation Army spokesman Bevrag Baloch said in a telephone call to the Quetta Press Club. “It was a retaliatory strike and such attacks will continue,” he vowed.

Quetta DIG (Operations) Rehmat Ullah Niazi said BNP Labour Secretary Agha Hasan Baloch had also been arrested.

Security has been tightened in Quetta where police set up roadblocks and stepped up patrols.

Balochistan has been witnessing a prolonged problem, with militant nationalists targeting state infrastructure like army posts, cantonments, airports power lines and railway tracks etc. The nationalist groups seek independence from Pakistan. 17.6.07