Pakistan militants kill 19 kidnapped bus passengers

Militants killed at least 19 passengers kidnapped from buses in an overnight attack in Pakistan's south-western province of Balochistan, officials said Saturday.
About half a dozen rebels wearing uniforms of the security forces stopped two Karachi-bound buses in a mountainous area 70 kilometers south-east of provincial capital Quetta, reports dpa.
They kidnapped at least 25 people, provincial Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti said.
"They took the passengers to the mountains and killed 19 of them," he said.
A passenger who was spared due to his Baloch ethnicity told Geo TV that militants checked the national identity cards of the passengers before killing them.
"All Pashtuns were killed while the Baloch were spared," he said without revealing his name.
Baloch and Pashtun are the two dominant ethnic groups in Balochistan, which is marred by more than decade of low-intensity co0nflict.  
No group claimed immediate responsibility for the killings. Baloch insurgents often target the civilians and security forces in their fight against central government control over the province's mineral resources.
Geo TV reported that the relatives of victims were protesting in Quetta over the incident.  
Elsewhere, at least two people were killed in an explosion in eastern city of Lahore on Friday night. The incident occurred near the Qaddafi stadium where a cricket match was in progress between Zimbabwe and Pakistan.
There were conflicting reports about the nature of bombing.
Police office Haider Ashraf said a rickshaw gas cylinder exploded, while some private TV channels reported that it was a suicide bombing.
Earlier, a spokesman of Pakistan Cricket Board said the explosion was caused when an electricity transformer malfunctioned and exploded. Police rejected that version.
Zimbabwe is the first team to visit Pakistan since 2009, when militants attacked a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, injuring several players, none fatally.