Burnt vehicles are seen at the shooting site on the national highway in Musakhail district of Balochistan province on August 26, 2024. | Photo credit: AFP
Separatist militants killed 39 people in multiple attacks overnight in southwestern Pakistan, a government official said on Monday (August 26, 2024).
“We have confirmed that 39 people have been killed in multiple coordinated attacks by terrorists.” BLA “The attack was carried out by Balochistan Liberation Army militants,” Balochistan provincial government spokesman Shahid Rind told AFP.
Senior police official Ayub Achakzai said 23 people were identified and shot dead in buses, vehicles and trucks in the Musakhail district of Balochistan province. The attackers burned at least 10 vehicles before fleeing.
In another attack, gunmen killed at least nine people, including four police officers and five passersby, in Balochistan’s Kalat district, officials said.
According to Assistant Commissioner Musakhel Najeeb Kakar, armed men blocked the inter-provincial highway in Rarasham district of Musakhel and forced passengers to get off the buses. Dawn The newspaper reported this news.
The deceased have been identified as residents of Punjab province.
Insurgents blew up a railway track in Bolan, attacked a police station in Mastung and attacked and burned vehicles in Gwadar, all districts in Balochistan. There were no reports of casualties in these attacks.
Balochistan has been the epicentre of a long-running insurgency in Pakistan, with several separatist groups carrying out attacks mainly on security forces. The separatists are demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. Although Pakistani authorities say they have suppressed the insurgency, violence continues in Balochistan.
The attack in Musakhail came hours after the banned Baloch Liberation Army separatist group warned people to stay away from highways as they launched attacks on security forces in different parts of the province. But no one has yet claimed responsibility for the recent killings.
Separatists often demand people’s identity cards and then kidnap or kill those from outside the province. Many recent victims have come from neighboring Punjab province.
Punjab provincial government spokeswoman Uzma Bukhari on Monday condemned the latest killings, saying the “attacks are a matter of grave concern” and urged the Balochistan provincial government to “intensify efforts to eliminate BLA terrorists.”
Balochistan authorities said they responded to the fresh attacks on Monday and would give details of their operations later. Local media said security forces killed at least 12 insurgents in different parts of the province in the past 24 hours.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, in separate statements, described the attack in Musakhail as “barbaric” and vowed that those behind it would not escape justice.
Later, Mr Naqvi also condemned the killings in Kalat
In May, seven barbers were shot dead by gunmen in the Balochistan port city of Gwadar.
In April, separatists kidnapped and killed nine people from a bus on a highway in Balochistan, and killed two people and wounded six others after attackers forced a stop to another car. The BLA claimed responsibility for those attacks at the time.
Islamabad-based security analyst Syed Muhammad Ali said the recent killings of non-Baloch people were an attempt by separatists to harm the province economically.
Ali said it The Associated Press saidHe said most such attacks are aimed at weakening Balochistan economically, adding that “weakening of Balochistan means weakening of Pakistan.”
He said militant attacks could hamper the development work being carried out in the province.
Separatists in Balochistan have frequently killed workers and others from the country’s eastern Punjab region in attempts to force them to leave the province, where a low-level insurgency has been going on for years.
Most previous killings of this kind have been blamed on banned groups and others seeking independence from the central government in Islamabad. Islamic militants also have a presence in the province