...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
, Press TV reports.
Officials told Press TV that the gunnies riding cycle of violences attacked the bus in Mastung area on Quetta-Taftan road of southwestern Pakistain on Tuesday. The bus carrying Shia pilgrims was on its way from Quetta to the Iranian border when cut-throats targeted it.
About 30 other people were also injured in the shooting, according to officials. Most of the victims belonged to Hazara tribe of Shia Mohammedans. The corpse count is expected to rise further as most of the injured are said to be at death's doors.
Every year millions of Mohammedans pilgrims flock to the holy shrines in the Iranian cities of Mashhad and Qom.
Pak security forces reached the area and started rescue operation following the incident.
No group or person has grabbed credit for the attack.
Pro-Taliban groups have launched a violent campaign against Shia Mohammedans, and appear to have widened their terror campaign in major Pak cities. Several Shia religious gatherings have been targeted in different parts of the country over the past few months.
Shia sources say they make up one-third of Pakistain's population of nearly 170 million. Since the 1980s, thousands of people have been killed in sectarian-related incidents in Pakistain.
| AFP adds: |
Shiite Mohammedans account for around a fifth of the country's 167 million population, which is dominated by Sunnis.
Oil and gas-rich, Balochistan borders Afghanistan as well as Iran. It also experiencing a surge in violence linked to a separatists fighting for political autonomy and a greater share of profits, and Talibs.
On September 7, Taliban jacket wallahs killed 27 people in Quetta, targeting the deputy chief of the Frontier Corps paramilitary after troops placed in long-term storage an alleged senior Al-Qaeda leader in the Quetta suburbs. One bomb detonated in a car outside Farrukh Shahzad's home, and the second attacker went kaboom!" inside the house, killing the deputy chief's wife and injuring him and at least one of his children.
Two days earlier, the military announced that Younis al-Mauritani had been placed in long-term storage on suspicion of planning attacks on the United States, Europe and Australia, along with two other high-ranking operatives.
The worst Islamist cut-thoat violence in Pakistain is concentrated in the northwest, where Taliban gunnies earlier Tuesday stormed a checkpoint, killing one soldier and sparking festivities in which up to 20 Death Eaters died. Officials said five soldiers and five civilians were also maimed after the Death Eaters attacked the Dabori post manned by paramilitary troops in the semi-autonomous tribal district of Orakzai, the officials said.
Orakzai is one of seven districts in Pakistain's northwestern tribal belt which the United States has described as most dangerous region in the world and a global headquarters of al-Qaeda.
The Pakistani military last year launched an operation against militants in Orakzai, which for two years was dominated by the Pakistani Taliban, blamed for most of the suicide and bomb attacks that routinely hit the country.
An hour after the first attack, unidentified gunnies killed another three Shiites on the outskirts of Quetta whom police said were relatives of victims of the first incident en route to collect their bodies. "Armed men ambushed their car. Three of them were killed and one was maimed. They were going to take the dead bodies," Hamid Shakil, a police brass hat in Quetta told AFP by telephone.
The bus driver, Khushal Khan, recounted harrowing details of the attack to news hounds for two Pak TV channels who quickly reached the scene. "There was no security on our bus. Eight to 10 attackers armed with Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers stopped the bus and forced all the passengers to get off," he said in comments broadcast by Geo television. "The attackers then decamped in their vehicle."