At least 73 people were killed in Pakistan’s Balochistan province as militants launched widespread attacks on police stations, railway lines, and highways, leading to retaliatory operations by security forces, Reuters reported on Monday.
These assaults mark the most extensive in years by ethnic militants, who have been engaged in a long-standing insurgency seeking the secession of Balochistan, a resource-rich southwestern province that hosts major China-led projects, including a port and a gold and copper mine, the report said.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi stated, “These attacks are a well-thought-out plan to create anarchy in Pakistan.”
Pakistan’s military confirmed that 14 soldiers and police officers, along with 21 militants, were killed in the largest of the attacks, which targeted buses and trucks on a major highway. Balochistan’s Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti revealed that 38 civilians were also killed, with local officials reporting that 23 of them were executed after being forced off buses, their IDs checked, and vehicles torched.
“People were taken off buses and killed in front of their families,” Chief Minister Bugti said during a televised press conference.
The militants also struck railway infrastructure, causing the suspension of rail traffic with Quetta after explosions damaged a bridge linking the provincial capital to the rest of Pakistan, according to Reuters. Additionally, a rail link to neighbouring Iran was targeted.
In further attacks, militants assaulted police and security stations in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least populated province, resulting in at least 10 deaths in one incident. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an armed militant group, claimed responsibility for the operation they called “Haruf” or “dark windy storm,” according to a statement sent to journalists and reported by Reuters.
The group also claimed additional attacks over the previous day that had not yet been confirmed by authorities.
The BLA stated that four suicide bombers, including a woman from Gwadar, participated in an attack on the Bela paramilitary base. While Pakistani authorities did not confirm the suicide blasts, the provincial chief minister confirmed that three people were killed at the base.
The BLA, the largest of several ethnic insurgent groups in Balochistan, accuses the central government of exploiting the province’s gas and mineral resources, where poverty is widespread. The group seeks the expulsion of China and independence for Balochistan.
