No group instantly claimed accountability for the assault and the motive for the taking pictures was unclear.
Gunmen have attacked a bus close to the city of Chilas in northern Pakistan, killing eight passengers and injuring practically two dozen others, district and regional officers say.
Muhammad Ali Johar, a spokesman for the regional authorities, stated the attackers opened hearth on the bus on Saturday night and the wounded had been taken to an area hospital.
Ghulam Abbas, a spokesperson for the Gilgit-Baltistan Police, instructed the dpa information company that two troopers had been amongst these killed.
In accordance with Abbas, one other 26 passengers had been wounded within the assault – some with bullet accidents.
The bus was travelling the Karakoram Freeway, one of many highest roads on this planet.
The assault, in response to officers, occurred at about 6:30pm (13:30 GMT) when the attackers opened hearth on the bus and it subsequently collided with an oncoming lorry.
No group instantly claimed accountability for the assault and the motive for the taking pictures was unclear.
“The federal government will be certain that the terrorists concerned within the assault are given the suitable punishment,” the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan, Haji Gulbar Khan, stated in an announcement.
Chilas lies within the mountainous area of Gilgit Baltistan, close to the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the place assaults have been rising in recent times, together with some claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Chilas is a well-liked stopping level for vacationers and can be close to a China-backed dam underneath development.
The assault got here amid an uptick in armed assaults throughout the nation, significantly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Balochistan. Each provinces border Afghanistan.
In July, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a political rally in northwestern Pakistan’s Bajaur district, killing at the very least 44 individuals and wounding practically 200, in response to officers.
Final month, a Pakistan Air Drive base got here underneath assault in central Punjab province, which the army stated was repulsed efficiently.