Video footage '99pc confirmed' Chinese nationals were killed: Sarfaraz Bugti
A video released by the militant Islamic State (IS) group purporting to show the killing of two Chinese nationals who were kidnapped from Quetta last month has confirmed "99 per cent" that the duo was murdered, a Balochistan government official said Tuesday.
Addressing a hastily called press conference, Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti said efforts were underway to recover bodies of the slain Chinese nationals. The area from where their vehicle was recovered was especially being searched, he said.
On May 24, in an instance of a security lapse gunmen dressed as police kidnapped the Chinese man and woman from Jinnah Town in Quetta. A third Chinese escaped the abduction.
IS claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and on June 8 released a video showing the murder, though government authorities kept denying the two had indeed been slain.
In a twist to the incident, a meeting at the interior ministry was informed on Monday that the Chinese visitors were preachers and not teachers as has been reported since their abduction last month.
The reports received by the interior ministry identified the deceased as Lee Zing Yang, 24, and Meng Li Si, 26.
'No organised presence of IS in Balochistan'
In response to a question about the reported presence of IS in Balochistan, Bugti said there is no "organised presence" of the dreaded militant group in Balochistan.
He said the suspected terrorists killed in Mastung during an operation a few days ago were stated to be in contact with IS militants. The militants killed in the operation belonged to the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi Al-Almi (LeJ-A).
The Balochistan home minister informed that security forces had killed two key commanders belonging to the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Quetta.
He said the dead commanders had been trained in neighbouring Afghanistan as per their mobile phone records. They were involved in more than 80 acts of terrorism including attack at the Quaid-e-Azam residency in Ziarat.
"We are faced with religious and nationalist terrorism," Bugti said.
