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QUETTA: Three people were killed while 12 others were injured in Pakistan’s southwestern Kalat district on Wednesday, police and an official confirmed, after unidentified men opened fire on a passenger bus headed toward Quetta.

Kalat Station House Office (SHO) Habibullah Baloch said unidentified armed men shot indiscriminately at a passenger bus from Karachi headed toward Quetta on Wednesday. The attack took place near Nimragh Cross in Kalat district, located on the N-25 highway connecting Balochistan to the southern port city of Karachi.

“Three passengers, residents of Karachi, were killed in the attack and 12 others were wounded,” Baloch told Arab News, adding that the injured were shifted to the District Hospital Kalat for treatment.

The police official said the attackers did not stop the bus to check the National Identity Cards (NICs) of the passengers before firing at them, adding that the gunmen “sprayed” the vehicle with bullets.

He said dozens of passengers were traveling in the bus, adding that most of them were residents of Karachi.

Balochistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind condemned the attack in a statement.

“The security forces have surrounded the area and a hunt for the attackers is underway,” Rind said.

The latest attack has taken place after gunmen abducted and killed nine people last week when they stopped two passenger buses on a highway in Balochistan’s Zhob and Loralai districts. Those buses were traveling from Quetta to the eastern Punjab province.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but most impoverished province, has been the site of a long-running insurgency that has intensified in recent months, with separatist militants attacking security forces, government officials and installations and people from other provinces, particularly Punjab, the country’s most populous and prosperous province and a major recruitment base for the military.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the strongest of a number of insurgent groups operating in the mineral-rich region bordering Afghanistan and Iran. The group accuses the central government of stealing their resources to fund development in Punjab and other parts of the country. The federal government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan, where China has been building a deep-sea port as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.

Pakistan accuses India of backing separatists in Balochistan as well as religiously motivated militant groups, like the Pakistani Taliban, in its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. New Delhi denies the allegations.

Balochistan has seen a rise in militant attacks since last year. Last August, nearly two dozen passengers were killed after BLA militants forcibly removed them from Punjab-bound buses in a string of coordinated attacks in Balochistan. Another seven Punjabi commuters were offboarded from buses and killed in Balochistan’s Barkhan district in February this year.

In March, BLA separatists hijacked a train that carried hundreds of passengers near Balochistan’s Bolan Pass, which resulted in the deaths of 23 soldiers, three railway employees and five passengers. At least 33 insurgents were also killed.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s interior ministry announced on Wednesday that the government would send Islamabad Police officers to Beijing so that they can receive training in artificial intelligence and modern policing methods. 

Pakistan has recently undertaken measures to enhance its policing methods, especially as it faces surging militant attacks in its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and southwestern Balochistan provinces. These efforts include digitizing police records, hiring more women police officers and releasing public awareness videos on social media platforms. 

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met Beijing Police Department’s Deputy Director General Gao Jianxin in Islamabad. The two sides discussed collaboration between the police forces of Islamabad and Beijing, the interior ministry said.

“During the meeting, it was decided that officers of Islamabad police will be sent to Beijing for training in modern policing and advanced technologies,” the ministry said in a statement.

“These officers will participate in various training courses conducted by the Beijing Police Department. They will also receive special training in the use of artificial intelligence to further improve the policing system,” it added. 

The minister said Pakistan would benefit from the “highly efficient and technologically advanced” Beijing police force, adding that the use of modern technology was essential for public safety and crime prevention.

Naqvi also highlighted the importance of timely information sharing to tackle militancy, crime, drug trafficking and human smuggling, the ministry said.

He accepted the Beijing Police’s offer to provide anti-riot training to the Islamabad police, the statement said.