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In an unprecedented attack on foreigners, Taliban militants disguised as paramilitary personnel stormed a mountaineering base camp in northern Pakistan, killing 10 foreign tourists and a Pakistani, embarrassing the PML-N Government just weeks after it assumed office and offered peace talks to the insurgents.
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 was carried out late Saturday night but authorities were alerted only on Sunday morning.
For hours, confusion surrounded the number and nationality of those killed in the attack in Gilgit-Baltistan, a territory disputed between India and Pakistan.
Following an autopsy in a state-run hospital in Islamabad, officials announced that the dead included three Ukrainians, two Chinese, two Slovakians, one Lithuanian, one American national of Chinese origin and one Nepalese.
A hospital spokesman said all the foreigners were killed by gunshot wounds in the head.
Officials initially said that nine foreigners and one Pakistani were killed. They later revised the toll to 11, including two Pakistanis. Late on Sunday night, other officials said that 10 foreigners and a Pakistani were killed.
Earlier in the day, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said in Parliament that another Chinese tourist was recovered safely.
“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 claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that 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.
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