ISLAMABAD, 29 May 2006 — Over 120 suspected militants were detained in Quetta, Naushki, Sibbi and Kharan after overnight rocket attacks in the restive southwestern Balochistan province, Inspector General of Balochistan Police Chaudhry Yaqub said in telephone interview with Arab News yesterday. The attacks killed a woman and wounded three others.
“Special teams have been sent to Mastung, Dhadhar, Sibbi, Naushki and Kharan to arrest more suspects whose names have figured in intelligence reports,” Yaqub said.
He said most of those arrested belong to the defunct Balochistan Liberation Army and Balochistan National Party.
Militants struck Saturday night firing seven rockets and opening machine-gun fire in Quetta, Naushki and Kohlu. The rockets landed in different localities creating panic among the residents.
One of the rockets hit a residential area in Samungli killing the woman and wounding her husband and two children.
Yaqub, at a press conference in Quetta yesterday, accused the militants of the outlawed BLA for the attack who are agitating for more political and economic rights in the impoverished province.
The suspected militants also targeted paramilitary checkpoints in Kohlu, Harnai and Dera Bugti areas, west of the provincial capital Quetta but there were no reports of any casualties.
Mobile police teams on night patrol detained a large number of suspects from different areas after the attacks.
The authorities have registered cases against 15 people, including a son of a rebel tribal chief Nawab Akbar Bugti and a senator belonging to his Jamhoori Watan Party, for Friday’s terrorist attack in the main natural gas town of Sui.
Fire broke out in a commercial area after militants blew up two pipelines that gutted at least 50 shops.
The incident also caused a temporary disruption in gas supply from the area where the country’s largest gas field is located.
