The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed the responsibility for two attacks on Monday, in which at least 31 people were killed, according to local sources.
Twenty-three people were fatally shot after being identified and taken from buses, vehicles and trucks in Musakhail, a district in Balochistan province, senior police official Ayub Achakzai said. The attackers burned at least 10 vehicles before fleeing. In a separate attack, gunmen killed at least nine people, including four police officers and five passers-by, in Qalat district also in Balochistan, authorities said.
Insurgents also 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 attack on railway track has cut Balochistan off from the rest of the country.
Meanwhile, four bullet-ridden bodies were found in Bolan, which sources claim were of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) handlers. There was also a suicide bomb attack in Lasbela.
Balochistan has been the scene of a long-running insurgency in Pakistan, with an array of separatist groups staging attacks, mainly on security forces. The separatists have been demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. Although Pakistani authorities say they have quelled the insurgency, violence in Balochistan has persisted.
The attack in Musakhail came hours after the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army separatist group warned people to stay away from highways as they launched attacks on security forces in various parts of the province.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in separate statements called the attack in Musakhail “barbaric” and vowed that those who were behind it would not escape justice. Later, Naqvi also condemned the killings in Qalat.
Inputs from the Associated Press
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