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18 killed in bus attack in SW Pakistan

07 July 2012 03:53 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Unidentified gunmen killed 18 bus passengers on Friday night in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The bus carrying job seekers was bound for Iran when it came under attack in Turbet district, Aaj TV reported.

Local TV channels earlier reported that the bus was carrying Shiite pilgrims.

The gunmen riding motorcycles fled the scene after the deadly attack.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Both Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Pervez Ashraf condemned what police said was the first attack on people going to Iran illegally. The slain men were residents from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

Local media said that the bus was heading from the southern port city of Karachi to Iran via Turbet, a district in southwestern tip of Balochistan, some 100 kilometers away from the Iranian border.

Police and other law enforcement personnel arrived at the scene an hour after the attack and shifted the bodies and two injured people to a nearby hospital.

Officials say that hundreds of people try to enter Iran illegally every month after paying money to agents who promise to take them to European countries via Iran and Turkey.