QUETTA, 28 July 2007 — Gunmen opened fire on the vehicle of the official spokesman for a provincial government in Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan, killing him, police said.
Raziq Bugti, spokesman and special adviser to the chief minister of Balochistan province, died at the scene after unknown assailants fired a barrage of shots as he drove past a school in Quetta, said Javid Ahmed, a local police officer.
The attackers fled, Ahmed said. Raziq had gone to participate in a program at the Quetta PTV center. He was ambushed while returning home. Raziq belonged to Bugti tribe but was against Nawab Akbar Bugti who was killed in a military operation.
Outlawed militant group Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for killing Raziq Bugti, a private TV channel reported. Biberg Baloch, self-claimed spokesman of BLA, called a press club in Quetta to make the claim, according to Dawn News.
Balochistan has experienced scores of attacks on military and government targets, most blamed on ethnic Baloch tribesmen and nationalist groups demanding the central government grant more royalties and control over resources, such as natural gas, extracted from the province.
