By Malik Siraj Akbar
QUETTA: Unidentified gunmen on Friday opened indiscriminate fire on youths playing cricket near the Balochistan Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) headquarters, leaving at least six boys dead and three injured, police said. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the killings.
Three of the men died on the spot. Three others succumbed to their injuries at Quetta Civil Hospital later, police added. Friends and relatives of the dead and injured boys rushed to the hospital and shouted slogans against the attackers, the police and the administration. They also broke hospital windows and blocked the road. The majority of the murdered boys belonged to Quetta’s ethnic Hazara minority.
The BLA claimed that those killed were spying for the Military Intelligence and the Inter-Services Intelligence.
Separately, talking to reporters after visiting the injured boys, Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani said he would quit if his government remained unable to resolve the situation in the province. He claimed the BLA was not responsible and he would bring the real culprits to justice.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008 531story_31-5-2008_pg1_9 |
