Eight Bullet-Riddled Bodies Found in SW Pakistan

Authorities on Sunday found eight bullet riddled bodies in Pakistan's restive southwestern Baluchistan province, which is facing a tribal insurgency, sectarian violence and Taliban attacks, officials said.

Five bodies were recovered from the district of Pashin and three from that of Ziarat, provincial home secretary Akbar Durrani told Agence France-Presse.

"We have found eight bodies today which are being brought to Quetta for identification and further investigation," Durrani said.

Local police confirmed the discovery of bodies but had no immediate details.

Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest but least developed and most sparsely populated province, is racked by Islamist militants, banditry and sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites.

In October the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that more than 300,000 people, including minority Shiites and Hindus, had left Baluchistan over the past 10 years due to rising unrest.

Pakistani rights group Defense for Human Rights says as many as 2,000 people have disappeared from across the country, many from Baluchistan.

Rights groups accuse the government of gross violations including holding people in secret and failing to charge them or put them on trial.

Pakistan's Supreme Court and high courts have also been investigating cases of missing people and issuing warnings to the government to recover these people.