Rockets hit Pakistan minister’s home
One person has died and eight others have been injured after the home of a cabinet minister in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province came under rocket fire, police said.
Two rockets struck the home of Abdul Qudus Bizenjo, minister for livestock and dairy, after midnight in a western neighbourhood in Quetta, Baluchistan’s capital, said Ghulam Mohamood Dogar, a senior Quetta police officer.
The minister was not at home at the time of the attack. One rocket hit a perimeter wall at the home while the second slammed into a bedroom, killing a guest, Dogar said on Sunday.
The wounded included some of Bizenjo’s relatives and a private security guard, he said. No one claimed responsibility, but Dogar blamed renegade tribesmen.
Home-made launcher
Police found a home-made launcher believed to have been used to fire the rockets and detained five people for questioning over the attack, Dogar said. Police also found bomb-making components, including a battery and timer, he said.
Dogar said Bizenjo’s home may have been targeted because he is a strong opponent of tribesmen-linked violence in Baluchistan.
Tribesmen have been accused of small bombings and rocket attacks on security forces and gas fields in a campaign for increased royalties for resources extracted from their territory.
In other developments, suspected Muslim fighters shot dead two policemen and injured another two in an attack on a patrol in a remote tribal town near the Afghan border, security officials said on Sunday.
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Baluchistan tribesmen have been |
The attackers, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, opened fire on a police van during a routine patrol in the Tank district of North Waziristan region late on Saturday, a security official said.
“The firing left two policemen dead and two wounded,” the official said, requesting anonymity. The attackers fled into the mountains.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas bordering insurgency-plagued
Afghanistan have seen frequent attacks on military and government installations by tribal fighters loyal to the ousted Taliban militia in the neighbouring country.
Fatal accident
In an unrelated incident, a small bus drove off a mountain road in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing 15 people and injuring four, police said.
The bus, which had its capacity 19 people aboard, was heading from Balakot, a town that was devastated by the 8 October earthquake, to the nearby city of Mansehra when it rolled into a ravine, said Yamin Khan, a senior police officer in Mansehra.