In the first attacks, gunmen shot dead 23 people after singling them out and taking them from buses, vehicles and trucks. Armed men blocked an inter-provincial highway in the Rarasham district of Musakhel, Balochistan, and offloaded passengers from vehicles, the Dawn newspaper reported quoting Assistant Commissioner Musakhail Najeeb Kakar.
The dead were identified as belonging to Punjab province. The assailants also set fire to at least 10 vehicles before fleeing.
Then, in another attack, gunmen killed at least nine people, including four police officers and five passersby, in Qalat district also in Balochistan, authorities said.
A rail line between Pakistan and Iran and a railway bridge linking Quetta, the provincial capital, to the rest of the country were hit with explosives during the attacks. Police said they had found six bodies that have yet to be identified, near the attack on the railway bridge.
Besides, 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. No casualties were reported in those attacks.The killings underlined the ongoing security challenges in Baluchistan, where separatist and militant activities have perpetuated a climate of violence and instability.”These attacks are a well thought out plan to create anarchy in Pakistan,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement, adding that security forces had killed 12 militants in operations after the attacks on Sunday and Monday.
Separatist groups in Balochistan have a history of targeting workers from eastern Punjab, aiming to drive them out of the province. The region has been dealing with a long-running insurgency.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) armed militant group took responsibility for the operation they called “Haruf” or “dark windy storm”. In a statement to journalists they claimed more attacks over the last day not yet confirmed by authorities.
The group said four suicide bombers, including a woman from the southern port district of Gwadar, had been involved in an attack on a major paramilitary base though Pakistani authorities have yet to confirm that attack. Monday was the anniversary of the death of Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Bugti, who was killed by Pakistan’s security forces in 2006.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed that security forces would retaliate and bring those responsible to justice.
The latest bout of violence comes nearly four months after a similar attack targeting people from Punjab. In April, gunmen offloaded nine people from a bus near Noshki and shot them dead after checking their ID cards. In October 2023, unidentified gunmen killed six labourers hailing from Punjab in Turbat in Balochistan’s Kech district. In 2015, 20 construction workers were killed and three injured in an attack on a labourers’ camp near Turbat.
