BALOCHISTAN: More than 70 people have been killed in multiple cases of terror attacks in the Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan, media reported, quoting military and police officials.
The country’s military said that 14 soldiers and police were killed as well as 21 terrorists were also killed in fighting in a major attack that targeted vehicles on a major highway in Bela, a town in Lasbela district, Al Jazeera reported.
In a separate attack in Musakhel district, local officials said at least 23 civilians were killed after attackers reportedly stopped their convoy, checked their IDs and determined they were from Punjab, with 35 vehicles also set ablaze.
Ten people five police and five civilians were reportedly killed in Kalat in an attack on a police post and a highway.
On Monday, rail traffic with Quetta was also suspended following blasts on a rail bridge in the town of Bolan, linking the provincial capital to the rest of Pakistan, as well as on a rail link to neighbouring Iran, railways official Muhammad Kashif said.
Six unidentified bodies have been found by the police so far, near the attack site on the railway bridge.
Balochistan province has had a simmering rebellion for years, with several armed groups present.
Rights groups have denounced Pakistan’s response to the movement, which they document as including enforced disappearances and other forms of state repression, Al Jazeera reported.
The attacks, along the highway that connects to the province of Punjab, came shortly after the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) warned people to stay away from highways in the province.
In a statement, the group claimed its fighters targeted military personnel travelling in civilian clothes, who were shot once they were identified. Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, however, said the killed people were innocent citizens.
The injured were moved to a hospital in Dera Ghazi Khan, the nearest large medical facility.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in separate statements called the Musakhail attack “barbaric” and pledged that the attackers would not get away with it.
Uzma Bukhari, a spokesperson for the Punjab provincial government, denounced the assaults as “a matter of grave concern” and called on the Balochistan provincial government to “step up efforts to eliminate BLA terrorists”.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti also promised that the attackers would be brought to justice.
According to local media, 12 rebel fighters were killed by security forces throughout the province in the past 24 hours.
Similar attacks in Balochistan in the past, have been claimed by the BLA, such as the killing of seven barbers in Gwadar in May, or the April killings of several people abducted from a highway.
Armed groups like the BLA in the resource-rich but impoverished province have secessionist aims, often targeting labourers from Punjab coming to the area to work.