Gunmen kill 33 bus passengers in Pakistan's restive Balochistan

Karachi, Aug 26 (PTI) Heavily-armed gunmen killed at least 33 people in two separate attacks in Pakistan's Balochistan province on Monday, as insurgent attacks spiked in the restive region.

In the first incident, at least 23 people from Pakistan's Punjab province were killed in a targeted attack in Balochistan’s Musakhel district after gunmen offloaded them from buses and checked their identities.

Senior Superintendent of Police Ayub Khoso said: “The passengers were told to get down from buses and shot dead after being identified from their national ID cards,” Khoso said.

“Most of those killed belonged to southern Punjab and some are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa suggesting they were killed because of their ethnic background,” he added.

In another attack, gunmen killed at least 10 people, including four police officers, in the Qalat district also in Balochistan, authorities said.

Security sources told Geo News that terrorists attacked multiple sites in Balochistan on the night of August 24 and 25.

Khoso said the armed men also set some 12 vehicles on fire on the highway in Musakhel.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most active militant group in the province, claimed responsibility for the attack in Musakhel.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack, Radio Pakistan reported.

Expressing grief and sorrow over the loss of precious lives in the despicable incident, they prayed for the departed souls and condoled with the bereaved families.

Zardari said the brutal killing of innocent people was the killing of the entire humanity and called for the culprits to be brought to justice.

The Prime Minister directed the local administration to fully cooperate with the bereaved families and provide medical aid to the injured. He also directed the law enforcement agencies to immediately investigate the incident.

“The terrorists responsible for this incident will be severely punished,” the premier vowed, adding that any kind of terrorism was not acceptable in the country.

Both the president and the prime minister expressed Pakistan’s unwavering commitment to eradicate the menace of terrorism.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti strongly condemned the incident of terrorism.

He expressed heartfelt sympathy and condolences to the families of those who died in the cowardly act of terrorists.

The terrorists and their facilitators will not be able to escape an exemplary end, he said, adding that the Balochistan government will pursue the terrorists.

In a separate terrorist attack, a railway bridge was blown up in Bolan’s Dozan area, said police.

Balochistan is Pakistan's largest province but, although it has more resources than other provinces, it is the least developed.

The BLA and other Baloch separatists have intensified attacks on Punjabis and Sinhdis from elsewhere in Pakistan working in the region. They have also targeted foreign energy firms they accuse of exploiting the region without sharing profits.

The attacks come nearly four months after a similar attack targeting people from Punjab. In April, nine passengers were offloaded from a bus near Noshki and shot dead after gunmen checked their ID cards.

In October last year, unidentified gunmen fatally shot six labourers hailing from Punjab in Turbat in Balochistan’s Kech district. According to the police, the killings were targeted. All victims belonged to different areas of southern Punjab, suggesting they had been chosen for their ethnic background.

A similar incident occurred in 2015 when gunmen killed 20 construction workers and injured three others in a pre-dawn attack on a labourers’ camp near Turbat.

There were at least 170 militant attacks in Balochistan last year which killed 151 civilians and 114 security personnel, according to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.