Blasts kill six in Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least six policemen were killed and 13 wounded on Thursday in a series of landmine explosions at a police training school in Pakistan's troubled southwest, police and hospital sources said.
Five landmines went off in quick succession as commandos of the police Anti-Terrorist Force were training at the school on the outskirts of Quetta, capital of the restive Baluchistan province.
"The blasts occurred one after another," Senior Superintendent of Police, Qazi Abdul Wahid, told Reuters. The landmines were connected through a wire.
No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts but police blamed the Baluch Liberation Army (BLA), a militants group listed as a terrorist organisation by the government last month.
"It is clear that BLA militants are behind this. They have planted mines throughout Baluchistan after they were banned and declared a terrorist organisation," provincial police chief Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqoob told Reuters.
TWO SUSPECTS DETAINED
He said police had detained two suspects and they were being interrogated.
Tribal militants are fighting for greater autonomy and more benefits from the exploration of oil and gas in Baluchistan.
Militants regularly blow up gas pipelines, rail links and power pylons, and launch rocket attacks on government buildings and army bases in the province.
On Thursday, the militants fired a rocket on a telephone exchange, disrupting communication links in Khuzdar district.
A simmering revolt in the province flared in December when rebel tribesmen fired rockets at a Baluch town during a visit by President Pervez Musharraf.
Critics of Musharraf say hundreds of people have been killed during an army campaign using helicopter gunships to quell the tribes, but analysts say the numbers are probably exaggerated.
Musharraf has announced plans for major infrastructure projects in Baluchistan to win back support in the poorest of Pakistan's four provinces but has vowed to deal sternly with the militants.
Baluchistan makes up more than 43 percent of Pakistan's total land area, but only accounts for about five percent of its people. Baluchs complain of a lack of political representation and resent their land's resources being used to benefit Pakistan's other provinces, most notably Punjab.
Five landmines went off in quick succession as commandos of the police Anti-Terrorist Force were training at the school on the outskirts of Quetta, capital of the restive Baluchistan province.
"The blasts occurred one after another," Senior Superintendent of Police, Qazi Abdul Wahid, told Reuters. The landmines were connected through a wire.
No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts but police blamed the Baluch Liberation Army (BLA), a militants group listed as a terrorist organisation by the government last month.
"It is clear that BLA militants are behind this. They have planted mines throughout Baluchistan after they were banned and declared a terrorist organisation," provincial police chief Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqoob told Reuters.
TWO SUSPECTS DETAINED
He said police had detained two suspects and they were being interrogated.
Tribal militants are fighting for greater autonomy and more benefits from the exploration of oil and gas in Baluchistan.
Militants regularly blow up gas pipelines, rail links and power pylons, and launch rocket attacks on government buildings and army bases in the province.
On Thursday, the militants fired a rocket on a telephone exchange, disrupting communication links in Khuzdar district.
A simmering revolt in the province flared in December when rebel tribesmen fired rockets at a Baluch town during a visit by President Pervez Musharraf.
Critics of Musharraf say hundreds of people have been killed during an army campaign using helicopter gunships to quell the tribes, but analysts say the numbers are probably exaggerated.
Musharraf has announced plans for major infrastructure projects in Baluchistan to win back support in the poorest of Pakistan's four provinces but has vowed to deal sternly with the militants.
Baluchistan makes up more than 43 percent of Pakistan's total land area, but only accounts for about five percent of its people. Baluchs complain of a lack of political representation and resent their land's resources being used to benefit Pakistan's other provinces, most notably Punjab.
posted by Marko at 5/11/2006 07:36:00 AM
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