By Gunmen carried out two deadly attacks in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province on Monday, killing at least 31 people in one of the region’s most violent days in recent months, officials said. Security forces subsequently killed 12 insurgents in response.
In the first incident, attackers fatally shot 23 people after identifying and removing them from buses, vehicles, and trucks in Musakhail district, according to senior police official Ayub Achakzai. The assailants burned at least 10 vehicles before fleeing the scene.
A separate attack in Qalat district left nine people dead, including four police officers and five civilians, authorities reported.
The violence extended beyond these deadly assaults, with insurgents blowing up a railway track in Bolan, attacking a police station in Mastung, and burning vehicles in Gwadar. No casualties were reported in these incidents.
The outlawed Baluch Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group had earlier warned people to avoid highways as they launched attacks on security forces across the province. However, no group immediately claimed responsibility for the day’s killings.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi announced that security forces killed 12 insurgents in response to the attacks. He promised a thorough investigation to identify those behind the violence, vowing that “terrorists and their facilitators will have no place to hide” in the country.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Interior Minister Naqvi condemned the attacks as “barbaric” and pledged to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Baluchistan has long been the scene of a separatist insurgency, with various groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. While authorities claim to have quelled the insurgency, violence in the province persists.
Syed Muhammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security analyst, told The Associated Press that the attacks on non-Baluch people are likely attempts by separatists to economically weaken the province. “The weakening of Baluchistan means the weakening of Pakistan,” Ali said, noting that such attacks could hamper development work in the region.
Separatists in Baluchistan have often targeted workers and others from the country’s eastern Punjab province, aiming to force them out of the region. The Pakistani Taliban, closely connected to the BLA, also maintain a presence in the province.
In a separate incident on Monday, a roadside bomb in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province killed four people and wounded 12 others in North Waziristan district, local administration official Abid Khan reported.
As violence continues to plague parts of Pakistan, authorities face the ongoing challenge of maintaining security and stability in these volatile regions.
AP
