Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan carried out two separate attacks on Monday, resulting in at least 31 deaths. Additional reports indicate other shootings and unrest in the same province.
In a targeted attack, unknown gunmen killed at least 23 people in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, after forcibly removing them from buses and verifying their identities. The incident happened in Balochistan’s Musakhel district, according to an Associated Press report.
In a separate incident, gunmen killed at least nine individuals, including four police officers and five bystanders, in the Qalat district of Balochistan, according to authorities. Additionally, insurgents targeted a railway track in Bolan, assaulted a police station in Mastung, and set vehicles on fire in Gwadar, all within Balochistan. No casualties were reported from these attacks. The Musakhail attack occurred shortly after the banned Baloch Liberation Army separatist group had issued a warning for people to avoid highways due to their ongoing assaults on security forces in different areas of the province. However, there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the recent killings.
According to Assistant Commissioner Musakhail Najeeb Kakar, armed assailants blocked the inter-provincial highway in the Rarasham district of Musakhel, forcibly removing passengers from buses and verifying their identities, as reported by Dawn. The victims, who were from Punjab province, had no known affiliation with any particular group responsible for the attack. The assailants also set fire to ten vehicles.
Police arrived at the scene and transported the bodies to a hospital.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi reported that 23 people were killed in the attack, although local official Achakzai cited a toll of 22. Hameed Zahir, the deputy commissioner of the affected area, added that the attackers not only killed passengers but also targeted truck drivers, setting fire to at least 10 trucks after the drivers were killed.
Militants involved in a long-standing ethnic insurgency aiming for Balochistan’s secession from Pakistan have targeted workers from Punjab, whom they accuse of exploiting local resources. The Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility, stating that its fighters had targeted military personnel disguised as civilians, who were shot after being identified.
Government vows action
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi both condemned the Musakhail attack as “barbaric” and promised that those responsible would face justice. Naqvi also expressed his condemnation of the recent killings in Qalat.
In recent months, there have been several violent incidents in Baluchistan. In May, gunmen killed seven barbers in Gwadar, and in April, separatists abducted nine people from a bus in Baluchistan, killing them along with two others and injuring six more in another vehicle they stopped. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for these attacks.
Security analyst Syed Muhammad Ali suggested that these recent attacks on non-Baloch individuals are aimed at economically destabilizing the province. He noted that weakening Baluchistan could weaken Pakistan as a whole, potentially hindering development efforts. Separatists in Baluchistan frequently target workers from the eastern Punjab region as part of their campaign to drive them out of the province, which has been plagued by a long-standing insurgency.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti condemned the terrorist attack, offering his condolences to the victims’ families and vowing that those responsible, along with their accomplices, would face severe consequences. He assured that the Balochistan government would actively pursue the attackers.
This attack follows a similar incident from April, where nine passengers were removed from a bus near Noshki and killed after their ID cards were checked. In October of the previous year, unidentified gunmen killed six labourers from Punjab in Balochistan’s Kech district, targeting them based on their ethnic background. A comparable incident occurred in 2015 when 20 construction workers were killed and three injured in a pre-dawn attack on a labour camp near Turbat.
