TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2004
Pakistan chief minister survives convoy attack
REUTERS
ISLAMABAD: The chief minister of Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province survived an attack on his motor convoy on Monday which killed one policeman and wounded two others, a local government official said.
Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yousaf was attacked on his way back to the Baluchi provincial capital Quetta from the town of Khuzdar, where six people, including five soldiers, were killed in an ambush by rebel gunmen on Sunday.
"While he was coming back to Quetta there was firing on one of his escort cars and as a result one policeman was killed and two more wounded ... he is safe," Abdul Rauf, Baluchistan's Home Secretary, told Reuters.
Rauf said the attack took place in the town of Surab, 190 km (118 miles) southeast of Quetta.
A security official told Reuters 20 men had been arrested as a result of the attack on the army, and police also seized assault rifles and hand grenades from a local university.
Baluch National Army (BNA), a shadowy militant group, claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack.
On Friday, Pakistan's prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz survived a suicide bomb attack which killed nine people including his driver. A hitherto unknown branch of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for that attack.
Al Qaeda has named President Pervez Musharraf as one of its main enemies for siding with the United States in its war on terror after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
But militancy in Baluchistan is over more local issues, with nationalists demanding more control over the area's natural resources as well as political and economic rights.
Pakistan security forces launched a massive operation last week in the Turbat area, around 380 km (225 miles) south of Khuzdar, following a similar attack by Baluchi nationalists.
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