QUETTA, Aug 11: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has taken suo motu notice of three incidents of terrorism in Balochistan which have claimed dozens of lives.

The chief justice has issued directives for issuance of notices to the attorney general, advocate general of Balochistan, federal interior secretary, provincial chief secretary, provincial home secretary and inspectors general of police and Frontier Corps, and asked them to submit a report explaining the government’s policy for combating terrorism.

The hearing has been fixed for Aug 15 at the Supreme Court’s Quetta registry.

The three incidents occurred on the sixth, eighth and ninth of August. On Aug 6, militants disguised as security personnel killed 14 people after kidnapping them from Punjab-bound passenger buses near Machh Town of Bolan district.

Most of the victims were Punjabi-speaking labourers and were going to their hometowns in Punjab to celebrate Eid. Two security personnel were among the dead.

About 200 gunmen wearing uniforms of the Frontier Corps and Levies Force stopped the buses and took away 14 people after identifying them.

The proscribed Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the killings.

On Aug 8, a man blew himself up in the Police Lines in Quetta, killing at least 30 people. Dozens of policemen, including a DIG and an SP, were among the dead.

The victims had gathered near a mosque in the high-security zone to attend funeral prayers of an SHO who had been gunned down earlier in the day.

On the Eid day, 10 people were killed when gunmen attacked a mosque in the suburbs of Quetta.

The chief justice took notice on a note put up by the registrar of the Supreme Court on reports published in newspapers regarding the deteriorating law and order in Balochistan.

The three incidents of terrorism had created a sense of insecurity among the people. The incidents were challenging the writ of the state because militants struck wherever and whenever they wanted to, said the note.