Spoetnik
01-02-05, 17:05
One man has been killed and six people wounded after three blasts rocked Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan.
Police said a motorcycle bomb went off in a market area on Tuesday. The rider was killed and two employees of a nearby shop were injured.
"We are investigating whether the victim was himself a terrorist or a passerby," said city police chief Pervez Rafi Bhatti.
Another blast was heard a short time later in the city, but the cause was not immediately known.
About 90 minutes earlier, a bomb planted near the railway tracks just outside the city injured four people including a policeman, a guard and an electrician on a train. The identity of the fourth person was not immediately known.
The device went off as the Jaffar Express crossed a bridge in the suburb of Saryab, senior police officer Hamid Shakil said.
"The bomb was detonated by a remote control device," he said. It went off with a deafening sound, damaging a staff coach at the front of the train, he added.
The policeman, guard and the electrician were injured by glass shards, Shakil said, adding that passengers on the train bound for the northern city of Rawalpindi escaped unhurt.
"It is an act of sabotage and the aim was to create terror," he said.
The rail blast was the fourth in two weeks to hit the line in Baluchistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
The blasts come amid an increasingly violent rebellion by separatist tribesmen, who are demanding better royalties and more jobs from local natural resources.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9109A04F-E59A-4A60-8D30-1DAECC8F0D5C.htm
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Unidentified attackers have blown a natural gas pipeline in eastern Pakistan, disrupting supplies, officials say, the second such attack in less than a month.
A spokesman for the Sui Northern Gas Co Ltd., which distributes gas to central and northern Pakistan, said an 18-inch diameter pipeline was ruptured on Friday night near the main eastern city of Lahore, causing disruption in supplies to the city and several other areas.
"Apparently it is a bomb explosion," a company spokesman said on Saturday.
He said engineers had repaired the damage and supplies had been fully restored.
Mohammad Pervez, chief engineer for projects at the company, said investigations were under way to determine the cause of rupture but a militant attack could not be ruled out.
"We are investigating the matter but prima facie it is a sabotage," he told Reuters.
Gas facilities are frequent targets in Pakistan but recent attacks have been unusually intense.
Supplies from the main gas field in southwestern Baluchistan province were suspended for more than a week in mid-January after an attack by Baluch tribesmen seeking more autonomy in which as many as 15 people were killed.
Police said suspected tribesmen fired two rockets and detonated two small bombs on Friday night in Quetta, capital of Baluchistan, but caused no casualities.
Authorities have beefed up security for the Sui gas field, about 440 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad, and the military has said it plans to set up a permanent base in the area to thwart more attacks.
Baluch nationalists and tribesmen have long been vying for greater economic and political rights and a bigger share in the exploration in a province rich in minerals yet one of the most backward in Pakistan.
The attacks have been a blow to Pakistan's efforts to attract foreign investment into oil and gas exploration and have called into question its security guarantees for a proposed gas pipeline running from Iran to India via its territory.
Authorities have not ruled out military action in Baluchistan, although they have said they seek a political settlement to the crisis. Analysts say the situation could explode into a full-blown insurgency if not handled carefully.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=663227
Police said a motorcycle bomb went off in a market area on Tuesday. The rider was killed and two employees of a nearby shop were injured.
"We are investigating whether the victim was himself a terrorist or a passerby," said city police chief Pervez Rafi Bhatti.
Another blast was heard a short time later in the city, but the cause was not immediately known.
About 90 minutes earlier, a bomb planted near the railway tracks just outside the city injured four people including a policeman, a guard and an electrician on a train. The identity of the fourth person was not immediately known.
The device went off as the Jaffar Express crossed a bridge in the suburb of Saryab, senior police officer Hamid Shakil said.
"The bomb was detonated by a remote control device," he said. It went off with a deafening sound, damaging a staff coach at the front of the train, he added.
The policeman, guard and the electrician were injured by glass shards, Shakil said, adding that passengers on the train bound for the northern city of Rawalpindi escaped unhurt.
"It is an act of sabotage and the aim was to create terror," he said.
The rail blast was the fourth in two weeks to hit the line in Baluchistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
The blasts come amid an increasingly violent rebellion by separatist tribesmen, who are demanding better royalties and more jobs from local natural resources.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9109A04F-E59A-4A60-8D30-1DAECC8F0D5C.htm
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Unidentified attackers have blown a natural gas pipeline in eastern Pakistan, disrupting supplies, officials say, the second such attack in less than a month.
A spokesman for the Sui Northern Gas Co Ltd., which distributes gas to central and northern Pakistan, said an 18-inch diameter pipeline was ruptured on Friday night near the main eastern city of Lahore, causing disruption in supplies to the city and several other areas.
"Apparently it is a bomb explosion," a company spokesman said on Saturday.
He said engineers had repaired the damage and supplies had been fully restored.
Mohammad Pervez, chief engineer for projects at the company, said investigations were under way to determine the cause of rupture but a militant attack could not be ruled out.
"We are investigating the matter but prima facie it is a sabotage," he told Reuters.
Gas facilities are frequent targets in Pakistan but recent attacks have been unusually intense.
Supplies from the main gas field in southwestern Baluchistan province were suspended for more than a week in mid-January after an attack by Baluch tribesmen seeking more autonomy in which as many as 15 people were killed.
Police said suspected tribesmen fired two rockets and detonated two small bombs on Friday night in Quetta, capital of Baluchistan, but caused no casualities.
Authorities have beefed up security for the Sui gas field, about 440 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad, and the military has said it plans to set up a permanent base in the area to thwart more attacks.
Baluch nationalists and tribesmen have long been vying for greater economic and political rights and a bigger share in the exploration in a province rich in minerals yet one of the most backward in Pakistan.
The attacks have been a blow to Pakistan's efforts to attract foreign investment into oil and gas exploration and have called into question its security guarantees for a proposed gas pipeline running from Iran to India via its territory.
Authorities have not ruled out military action in Baluchistan, although they have said they seek a political settlement to the crisis. Analysts say the situation could explode into a full-blown insurgency if not handled carefully.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=663227