Pakistani militants kill 9 tourists and their guide in hotel shooting

Nanga Parbat, the mountain located in Baltistan, in the Gilgit-Baltistan region 

of Pakistan. (Image from wikipedia.org / photo by Daniel Martin)

A group of militants has stormed a hotel in northern Pakistan, killing nine foreign tourists and their guide, Pakistani security officials report. Chinese, Russian and Ukrainian citizens were among the victims gunned down by the extremist group.

"Unknown people entered a hotel where foreign tourists were staying last night and opened fire," Ali Sher, a senior police officer in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan province, told Reuters. "They killed 10 foreign tourists and fled." 

He added that three Chinese, five Ukrainians, one Russian and a guide were gunned down in the attack that happened at around 1:00 am local time (20:00 GMT). The tourists were staying in a small resort close to the base camp of the snow-covered Narga Parbat mountain.

An extremist militant group known as Jundallah claimed that they were behind the attack. The organization has carried out previous deadly attacks on Pakistan’s Shiite Muslim minority population.

"These foreigners are our enemies and we proudly claim responsibility for killing them and will continue such attacks in the future as well," Jundullah spokesman Ahmed Marwat told Reuters by telephone.

Another militant group, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, has also claimed responsibility for the attack, saying their fighters conducted the killing “to retaliate for the US drone assaults in north-west Pakistan.

“The killing of foreigners in Gilgit (Baltistan province) is called to show the international community the degree of hatred we feel about the Americans attacking our fighters,” Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan told local media.

It has been reported that the personal items and equipment of the murdered climbers were stolen in the attack. 

Authorities have deployed a large number of security personnel, as well as helicopters, to the area and have sealed off the crime scene. 

The bodies will have to be recovered by helicopter because of the remoteness of the northern province that borders China and Kashmir, an anonymous official told Reuters.

The mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan is comparatively free of violence and one of the countries few tourist destinations. However, the area has seen a recent wave of insurgent attacks, targeting the province’s Shiite Muslim minority.

Image from maps.google.com