Pakistan to probe killing of five foreigners

QUETTA, Pakistan — Pakistan on Saturday appointed a high court judge to investigate the killings of five unarmed foreigners by security forces in the southwestern Baluchistan province, officials said.

Security forces on Tuesday said they had foiled a major attack by militants when they killed five Chechens including three women, one of them carrying a Russian passport.

Officials said the group was armed with guns and bombs with some wearing suicide vests.

The government named Justice Hashim Kakar of Baluchistan High Court to conduct inquiry after it emerged the foreigners were unarmed and one of the women was pregnant.

"The judicial tribunal will ascertain facts leading to the incident and fix responsibility in this regard," an official statement said.

The tribunal will submit its report within one month, it said.

The Russian embassy in Islamabad earlier contacted the foreign office for more details about the incident, foreign ministry spokesperson Tehmina Janjua said, without elaborating.

"An investigation is under way and when completed we will convey it to the Russian embassy," she told reporters.

The May 17 incident took place near a security post in the Kharotabad neighbourhood of the provincial capital Quetta.

City police chief Daud Junejo initially told reporters that the suspected militants were travelling in a car.

Police intercepted them but the group tried to flee towards a check point and all five attackers were killed in a firefight that followed, he said.

But the bomb disposal squad in its report released in Quetta on Saturday said they were unarmed.

"No suicide vests or explosives were found on their body," it said.

A provincial government spokesman Zafarullah Baloch confirmed "they were unarmed."

Local channels ran a video showing at least one woman raised her hands in a plea for help while a post mortem report said one of the women was pregnant with seven-month baby.

Impoverished Baluchistan is wracked by an insurgency waged by ethnic Baluch tribes seeking greater autonomy from the federal government and a greater share of profits from the region's wealth of oil and gas resources.