Gilgit violence spreads to Skardu: Petrol station set ablaze

GILGIT/SKARDU: Curfew remains imposed in Gilgit, following Tuesday’s outbreak of violence.

Meanwhile the wave of violence spread to Skardu where a petrol pump was set ablaze.

A strike is also being observed in on Wednesday and all the educational institutions, office and markets remain closed. The district administration has imposed section 144 and the show of arms has been forbidden.

Persons stranded in different districts during riots are being shifted to the safe places by the security forces.

On the other hand forty passengers, who had escaped firing on busses in Chilas, have been shifted to Skardu.

The Pakistan Army continues to patrol volatile areas in Gilgit along with additional contingents of the police and scouts’. Mobile phone service and telecommunications in the city remained suspended.

All arrangements have been made by the Army to take the bodies of the Chilas victims to their native villages.

An initial report regarding the violence in Gilgit and Chilas has been sent to the federal government. According to the report, a rally was taken out Tuesday against the arrest of Maulana Ataullah. Ahl-e-Sunnat o Al-Jamaat’s rally was fired upon and attacked with hand grenade killing six people.

Later, four buses en-route to Chilas was surrounded and attacked by about 40 motorcycle riders. Passengers were offloaded and nine were killed, while four of them died of drowning, as they had jumped into the river to escape the attack.