Dacoits open fire on Quetta-bound bus, helicopters deployed in ongoing rescue effort
Unidentified assailants opened fire on a passenger bus in the Murid Shakh area of Kashmore, Sindh, abducting 19 passengers travelling from Sadiqabad to Quetta.
The attackers stopped the bus around 11.30pm on Monday near the Guddu Interchange along the Guddu Kashmore Link Road. Confirming the incident, Sadabahar Transport Company owner Shoaib Lehri said that men, women and children were on board, adding that the attackers separated passengers before abducting them.
According to eyewitnesses, around 15 armed men attacked the bus, injuring the driver before taking the abducted passengers into the nearby Katcha area.
Police and Rangers launched a search operation, resulting in the recovery of 10 abducted passengers after an exchange of fire in Sonmiani, Balochistan. DIG Sukkur Captain (Retired) Faisal Abdullah Chachar confirmed the identities of some recovered passengers: Muhammad Irfan, Lal Khan, and Zulfiqar Ali from Rahim Yar Khan, Feroz Khan from Muzaffargarh, and Kareem Bakhsh and Syed Ali Imad.
DIG Chachar said that during the encounter, two dacoits were injured. Two of the recovered passengers have been taken to hospital.
The DIG noted that dense fog and sugarcane crops in the Katcha area are complicating the search operation, which remains ongoing with all available resources, including helicopters.
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Families of the remaining abducted passengers are being contacted by the transport company. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the incident.
The occurrence is another link in the growing wave of crime in the Katcha areas of northern Sindh, where kidnappings for ransom are increasingly common. Demands are being made for the government to undertake measures that ensure the safety of passengers travelling on the Katcha routes.
