ISLAMABAD : Taliban gunmen disguised as soldiers killed nine foreign tourists and a Pakistani guide in an unprecedented attack on a base camp in remote mountains of northern Pakistan, embarrassing the PML-N Government just weeks after it assumed office.
About 14 to 16 militants targeted the camp at Buner Valley in Gilgit-Baltistan that serves as a base for mountaineers headed for the 8,126-metre Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth highest peak.
The attack occurred late last night but authorities were alerted only this morning, officials said.
Speaking in parliament, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said three Chinese nationals, one Russian, five Ukrainians and one Pakistani were among the dead.
Another Chinese tourist was recovered safely, he said.
“The attackers were wearing the uniform of the Gilgit Scouts. They abducted two (Pakistani) guides and demanded they take them to where the foreigners were staying. One (guide) was killed and the other is alive. He has been detained by police for questioning,” Khan said.
The Gilgit Scouts is a paramilitary unit that is part of the army’s Northern Light Infantry regiment.
The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan today claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was carried out to avenge the death of the group’s deputy chief, Waliur Rehman, in a US drone strike on May 29.
Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan called journalists and said the attack was carried out by a new faction named Junood-e-Hafsa.
“This will tell the international community about our feelings and sentiments against the killing of our fighters. We want to convey to the world that this is our reply to US drone attacks,” he said.
Ihsan said Junood-e-Hafsa was set up to attack foreigners.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the killing of the foreigners and said “such acts of cruelty and inhumanity would not be tolerated and every effort would be made to make Pakistan a safe place for tourists”.
The TTP has been engaged in a domestic insurgency since 2007 but it was not known to have a presence in Gilgit-Baltistan, a region that is disputed between Pakistan and India.
Following the attack, the Chief Secretary and police chief of Gilgit-Baltistan, earlier known as the Northern Areas, were suspended on the orders of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Deputy Inspector General of Police Ali Sher told reporters in Gilgit that the armed men barged into a hotel and killed the tourists.
Police and security forces had cordoned off the area and launched a hunt for the killers.
Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah said authorities had sought help from the army, which had provided a helicopter for aerial surveillance of the area where the attack took place.
The remoteness of the area and lack of roads and communication facilities had hampered the response by authorities, he said.
About 14 to 16 attackers, wearing uniforms of the Gilgit Scouts, barged into the hotel at 10.30 pm last night.
After tying up about 25 Pakistani staff, the attackers killed the foreign tourists and a Pakistani.
The attackers were in the base camp for almost 90 minutes and left the area at midnight.
The paramilitary Frontier Corps was alerted about the incident only at 6 am.
Other foreign mountaineers and tourists were present in area.
Despite several sectarian attacks that left dozens of Shias dead in the nearby Chilas and Diamer areas last year, there are no security forces or check posts on the sole road leading to the base camp in Diamer.
Initial reports said the incident had occurred in the tourist resort of Fairy Meadows near Nanga Parbat’s northeast face, but officials later clarified that the attackers targeted a base camp in Diamer.
The bodies were flown out of the remote region in military helicopters.
The attack was the first of its kind in Gilgit-Baltistan and raised serious questions about the safety of scores of tourists, many of them foreigners, who visit the region.
The National Assembly or lower house of parliament adopted a unanimous resolution condemning the attack in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi moved the resolution after relaxation of rules by the House.
Interior Minister Khan said the bodies of the foreign tourists will be sent to their countries with dignity and the Information Minister will go to Beijing with the bodies of the Chinese nationals.
Member of the treasury and opposition benches condemned the killing of the foreigners and a Pakistani guide and urged authorities to adopt stringent measures to prevent such incidents that threaten to jeopardise mountaineering expeditions.
Gilgit-Baltistan, which borders China, was considered one of the more secure areas under Pakistani control but in recent years it has witnessed a spate of militant attacks targeting the minority Shia community.
Dozens of Shias have died in these attacks. (AGENCIES)
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