Gunmen opened fire on Pakistani police escorting a Spanish cyclist through a volatile province bordering Iran on Wednesday, killing six officers and wounding the Spaniard, said officials. The attack on the cyclist, who had just arrived from Iran and whose blog said he was trying to cycle around the world, came one day after militants in the same region killed 28 people in a bus convoy of Shiite Muslim pilgrims. One police officer said authorities suspected the same group carried out both attacks. The Spanish cyclist had arrived in the town of Dalbandin, about 350 kilometers (220 miles) from Quetta, provincial capital of Baluchistan, on Tuesday evening after biking from the Iranian border, said the provincial Home Secretary, Asadur Rehman Gilani. Local authorities asked him to stay overnight out of concern for his safety and then arranged a police escort of more than a dozen officers to take him to Quetta on Wednesday morning, Gilani said. When they were in the Mastung district, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) from Quetta, gunmen opened fire. Six policemen were killed, while the cyclist and another nine police officers were wounded, according to a police official Mohammed Ibrahim. The Spanish embassy in Islamabad did not return telephone calls seeking comment. The Home Secretary identified the Spaniard as Colorado Solana while the Spanish media identified him as Javier Colorado. A blog written by the Spaniard said he was cycling around the world and that he had been the victim of an attack in Pakistan.
