Gunmen kill two intelligence agents in SW Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan, April 29 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed two Pakistani intelligence agents in a drive-by shooting in the southwestern town of Khuzdar on Tuesday, police said.
The pair, who worked for the Military Intelligence (MI), were on their way home from their office when they were sprayed with bullets in a bazaar by attackers riding on a motorbike.
Khuzdar is located in Baluchistan, the country's largest but poorest province, where tribal militants have been waging a low-level insurgency for provincial autonomy.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack but Mohammad Zafar, a senior police official in Khuzdar, blamed Baluch militants for the killings.
Pakistan's new coalition government, formed after a general election in Feb. 18, has vowed to open dialogue with Baluch nationalists to resolve the decades-old problem but militants have continued their attacks.
On Saturday a bomb exploded near an office of MI in the town of Dera Bugti, damaging the building.
The intelligence agency has been active in Baluchistan since President Pervez Musharraf, who quit army chief late last year, ordered a military crackdown in late 2005 after being targeted by a rocket attack while visiting the province.
The militants are fighting for greater autonomy and a larger share of the benefits from the province's natural resources.
They target government installations, security forces, gas pipelines, railway tracks and electricity pylons. (Reporting by Gul Yousafzai; Writing by Kamran Haider; Editing by Alex Richardson)
The pair, who worked for the Military Intelligence (MI), were on their way home from their office when they were sprayed with bullets in a bazaar by attackers riding on a motorbike.
Khuzdar is located in Baluchistan, the country's largest but poorest province, where tribal militants have been waging a low-level insurgency for provincial autonomy.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack but Mohammad Zafar, a senior police official in Khuzdar, blamed Baluch militants for the killings.
Pakistan's new coalition government, formed after a general election in Feb. 18, has vowed to open dialogue with Baluch nationalists to resolve the decades-old problem but militants have continued their attacks.
On Saturday a bomb exploded near an office of MI in the town of Dera Bugti, damaging the building.
The intelligence agency has been active in Baluchistan since President Pervez Musharraf, who quit army chief late last year, ordered a military crackdown in late 2005 after being targeted by a rocket attack while visiting the province.
The militants are fighting for greater autonomy and a larger share of the benefits from the province's natural resources.
They target government installations, security forces, gas pipelines, railway tracks and electricity pylons. (Reporting by Gul Yousafzai; Writing by Kamran Haider; Editing by Alex Richardson)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Sphere
Showbiz week
New video shows power of earthquake
