QUETTA, June 15: At least 28 people were arrested on Friday by police and law-enforcement personnel in connection with Thursday’s ambush as death toll climbed to 10 after one more soldier died from wounds in a hospital, a senior police officer told Dawn.
“We have arrested 28 suspects during raids in different parts of the city, and they have been handed over to the authorities concerned for interrogation,” Deputy Inspector-General of Operations Rehmatullah Khan Niazi said.
Three teams have been constituted by Inspector-General of Balochistan Police for investigations into the ambush.
The teams comprising police, CID and CIA personnel have already started their work. Members of the three teams on Friday visited the site of the incident.
Meanwhile, the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for the Zarghoon ambush.
A man identifying himself as Bebarg Baloch and claiming to be a spokesman for the BLA, told newsmen by telephone that the BLA was behind the attack. He warned that such attacks would continue.
Security was tightened in and around Quetta after the attack and more personnel of police and Balochistan Constabulary had been deployed on all entry and exit points of the city.
BURIAL: Bodies of the seven troops killed in the ambush were sent to their native villages for burial on Friday. One more soldier died in hospital from bullet wounds he suffered in Thursday’s incident.
A C-130 transport aircraft took the bodies to Lahore and from there, the bodies were despatched to home villages of the slain soldiers.
Earlier, funeral prayers of the troops were offered in the cantonment area. Senior military and civil officers attended the prayers.
CRACKDOWN: Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Jam Muhammad Yousuf said on Friday that a crackdown would soon be launched on elements behind Thursday night’s attack.
Talking to newsmen after a meeting here on Friday, the chief minister said that a comprehensive action plan had been formulated and it would be implemented with the help of law-enforcement agencies, including the Frontier Corps, if needed.
In reply to a question, the chief minister said that some political elements who had been hurling threats in the past could be behind the attack.
He said that no one was above the law and the writ of the government would be maintained at all costs.
The Secretary-General of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal group), Mr Habib Jalib, claimed that police had arrested over a dozen activists of his party, including three senior leaders -- Labour Secretary Agha Hasan Baloch, Musa Khan Baloch and Jahangir Baloch.
He said that police raided houses in Killi Qambrani and in the ouskirts of Quetta, and arrested 16 leaders and workers.
He accused the government of planning to put the blame of the Thursday’s ambush on the BNP-M in order to get it declared a terrorist organisation by the United State.
He said the government had tried to implicate BNP-M men in the killing of military personnel in Khuzdar two year ago.
Referring to the chief minister’s statement about Mulla Omar and Osama bin Laden, Mr Jalib asked the chief minister to tell the people whether the JUI-F and its members with whom he had formed a coalition government in Balochistan, were not strong supporters of the Taliban and Al Qaeeda leadership.
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