 "Pakistan Army")
File photo of Pakistan Army soldiers during counter-terrorism operations. Image credit: Inter Services Public Relations Directorate (Pakistan)
Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province witnessed a spate of attacks on Monday, including the killing of over 20 passengers who were forcibly removed from trucks and buses and opened fire on by armed assailants.
Early Monday morning, at least 23 individuals were killed in Balochistan’s Musakhail district when armed assailants forcibly removed them from trucks and buses before opening fire on them after verifying their identities, Pakistani publication Dawn reported, citing an official.
Citing Musakhail’s assistant commissioner, the report said that the attackers had blocked the inter-provincial highway in the Rarasham area of the district, stopping several buses and offloading passengers. According to the report, the majority of those killed belonged to Pakistan’s Punjab province. The assistant commissioner added that the armed men had also set fire to 10 vehicles.
Later, in a statement to news agency AFP, the Musakhail assistant commissioner confirmed that while three of the victims were from Balochistan, the remaining were from Pakistani Punjab.
At the time of filing, Dawn said that no details had been released regarding the attackers.
The report added that Monday’s killings were the second incident of this nature this year. In April, nine passengers were pulled from a bus near Balochistan’s Noshki city and executed after their identity cards were checked by gunmen.
Such attacks have occurred in previous years as well. In October last year, unidentified assailants fatally shot six labourers from Punjab in Turbat, located in Balochistan’s Kech district. At that time, local police had suggested that the killings were targeted and the victims had been selected based on their ethnic background.
Before that, in 2019, gunmen had intercepted a bus near Ormara in Gwadar district, killing 14 people, including personnel from Pakistan’s Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard, after verifying their national identity cards.
Citing Radio Pakistan, a separate report by Dawn on Monday said that twelve militants had been killed, and several others injured, after security forces responded to multiple attacks across Balochistan.
Without specifying the exact areas of the attacks, the report said that militants, who it described as “terrorists”, had carried out “cowardly attacks at several locations” in Balochistan.
The report further said that Pakistani security forces and law enforcement agencies had responded “effectively” to the attacks, adding that the operation was ongoing and would continue until all the militants involved were eliminated.
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According to the Dawn report, the development came after armed men launched attacks on Levies and police stations in Mastung, Kalat, Pasni, and Suntsar late on Sunday night.
The report added that explosions and grenade attacks also occurred at Sibi, Panjgur, Mastung, Turbat, Bela, and Quetta.
Citing officials, the report said that armed men had also destroyed a railway track, which linked Pakistan with Iran, in Mastung.
Eleven people, including security personnel, were killed and six others left injured in the overnight assaults across the Kalat district, according to the Kalat superintendent of police.
Armed men also reportedly attacked the Pasni police station, assaulted personnel, and set ablaze three vehicles and motorcycles parked there.
Another police station in Suntsar, a coastal town in Gwadar, was ransacked, with the attackers seizing the weapons stored there.
Citing officials again, the report said that armed men had also attacked Levies Thana Khadkocha, taking personnel hostage, while in Kalat, a gunfight had ensued between armed men and law enforcement agencies.
Four Levies sepoys were reportedly martyred in the clashes, along with a police sub-inspector, tribal elder, and two civilians.
Kalat’s assistant commissioner was also injured during the exchange of fire, said the Dawn report, adding that the official was in a stable condition.
The clashes reportedly occurred at various points along the Quetta-Karachi highway, which has now been closed to traffic. Hospitals in the area have also declared an emergency.
First Published: Aug 26 2024 | 3:14 PM IST