QUETTA: Pakistan has suspended buses carrying Shia pilgrims from its volatile Baluchistan province to neighbouring Iran due to security concerns after a suicide attack killed 27 pilgrims this week, officials said yesterday.
A 700km highway connecting the Pakistani city of Quetta and Iran, home to many Shia pilgrimage sites, has seen dozens of suicide and roadside bomb attacks claimed by radical Sunni Islamist groups.
“We have temporarily suspended the movement of buses on the highway until the security situation improves,” a senior official of the provincial government said.
Sectarian attacks are on the rise in Pakistan, where minority Shias make up about 20 percent of the 180 million people. Human Rights Watch says more than 400 Shias were killed in 2013, including members of the Shia Hazara minority group.
Transit system to spur trade
ISLAMABAD: The government of Pakistan has decided to set up integrated transit trade management system (ITTMS) at border customs stations to facilitate trade with neighbouring countries.
The integration of the transit trade is aimed to stop pilferage in the domestic market with a facility of satellite tracking system.
Yesterday, the government set up a 13-member high-level steering committee headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar with five federal ministers and seven secretaries of the relevant departments to spearhead the development of the ITTMS.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has approved the summary of the Federal Board of Revenue International Customs Section for constituting the committee to finalise the project plan for the implementation of the ITTMS. Official documents show that ITTMS is being developed in a way that would ensure safety and security of the region as well as global supply chain.
Agencies
