Fourteen Pakistani and Indian Shia pilgrims were abducted and killed in Iraq's western desert, police said on Saturday. The slain pilgrims, 11 Pakistanis and three Indians, had been travelling to holy sites in Iraq on Thursday when they were attacked in Anbar province, Iraqi and Indian officials said.
An official at the al-Hussein hospital in Kerbala, where the bodies were taken on Friday, said the 14 men had their hands bound and had been shot in the head. Some had been tortured and one was partially decapitated. Pakistan ambassador to Jordan Arif Kamal said on Saturday, Pakistani pilgrims would be buried in Kerbala. There were 26 Pakistanis in the party, including 11 men and 15 women, he said.
Most of the pilgrims belonged to Sahiwal and Layyah. Assailants targeted men only, setting free women of the party. All the 26 women of the group are safe and present in Kerbala.
Names of killed Pakistani pilgrims are: Farhat Abbas, Fazal Sherazi, Malik Irshad Hussain, Mazhar Hussain, Malik Imran Ali, Sadaqat Ali, Muhammad Ramzan, Ghulam Shabbir, Malik Ghulam Hussain, Imran Amjad and Rab Nawaz.
Further information can be obtained from Iraq on following telephone numbers: 06964-7801010592. In his weekly radio address, US President George W. Bush told Americans that Iraq was not in civil war.
"Our commanders and diplomats on the ground believe that Iraq has not descended into a civil war," Bush said. "They report that only a small number of Iraqis are engaged in sectarian violence, while the overwhelming majority want peace and a normal life in a unified country."
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a new call for restraint after meeting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Najaf and warned the government to act quickly to avoid disaster.
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