Baloch militants kill 9 passengers from Punjab in southwest Pakistan
Islamabad/Karachi (PTI): Baloch insurgents shot and killed nine passengers from Punjab after offloading them from passenger buses in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, authorities said on Friday.
The incident took place late on Thursday on the national highway in the Sur-Dakai area of Zhob district, said Assistant Commissioner Zhob Naveed Alam.
The armed insurgents stopped two Punjab-bound buses and checked the ID cards of travellers before offloading nine passengers and shooting them dead.
“Nine people abducted from both coaches have been killed, and their bodies have been recovered,” Alam said, adding that all nine belonged to different parts of the Punjab province.
The Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), a banned outfit known for attacking the security forces, claimed responsibility for the gruesome murders.
“We have moved the nine bodies to the hospital for post-mortem and burial procedures,” Alam said.
Security forces suspended traffic on the highway and began a large-scale search operation to locate the perpetrators.
Condemning the killing of nine passengers, Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said that the killing of innocents based on identity is an "unforgivable crime".
“The terrorists have proven that they are not human beings, but cowardly beasts. The blood of innocents will not go in vain on the soil of Balochistan. The state will not allow these murderers to hide even underground,” he said.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the incident and said terrorists have shown the worst barbarity by targeting innocent people.
This is not the first time that insurgents have targeted people belonging to the Punjab province and passenger buses plying on different highways in Balochistan.
Meanwhile, insurgents also carried out three other terrorist attacks in Quetta, Loralai and Mastung, but a spokesperson for the Balochistan government Shahid Rind claimed security forces repulsed these attacks.
Unconfirmed reports in the Balochistan media claimed that insurgents had struck at several places in the province during the night and engaged security forces by attacking check posts, government installations, police stations, banks, and communication towers.
While Rind confirmed the attacks, he said there were no reports of casualties in any of them.
Bordering Iran and Afghanistan, Balochistan is home to a long-running violent insurgency.
Baloch insurgent groups frequently carry out attacks targeting security personnel, government projects and the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in this oil and mineral-rich province.
In March, five people working on long body trailers were shot dead in the Kalmat area near Gwadar port, while in February, insurgents offloaded seven passengers belonging to the Punjab province and killed them on the spot in the Barkhan area.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
