QUETTA: Five passengers were killed and 13 others injured when gunmen attacked two coaches in different areas of Bolan district in the early hours of Monday.

The banned Baloch Republican Army has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

According to sources, a Nawabshah-bound coach coming from Quetta was attacked when it approached Gokurth at around 2am. A woman was killed and three others were injured. The armed men hiding in the mountains fled after the attack.

The second incident took place in Bala Nari area of Bolan district in which a Rajanpur-bound coach coming from Quetta was attacked. Two passengers died on the spot and two others on way to hospital. Twelve people were injured.

An official said the assailants had used sophisticated weapons in the attacks.

“Five people, including a woman, were killed and 13 others injured in the two armed attacks,” officials said.

Calling reporters from an unspecified place, BRA’s spokesman Sarbaz Baloch said “we carried out the attacks because the organisation’s call for a wheel-jam and shutter down strike on the sixth death anniversary of Nawab Akbar Bugti was ignored”. “Despite our appeal for  wheel-jam strike coaches were carrying people to Sindh and Punjab.”—Staff Correspondent