Separatist militant attacks on police stations, railway lines and highways in Pakistan’s restive province of Balochistan, coupled with retaliatory operations by security forces, have killed at least 51 people, officials say.
The assaults were the most widespread in years by ethnic militants fighting a decades-long insurgency to win secession of the resource-rich southwestern province, home to major Chinese-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine.
“These attacks are a well thought out plan to create anarchy in Pakistan,” interior minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement on Monday, adding that security forces had killed 12 militants in operations after the attacks, but without giving details.
The largest of the attacks targeted vehicles from buses to goods trucks on a major highway, killing at least 23 people, officials said, with 35 vehicles set ablaze.
Police said they had found six as yet unidentified bodies near the site of the attack on the railway bridge.
Officials said militants also targeted police and security stations in Balochistan, which is Pakistan’s largest province, killing at least 10 people in one attack.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office condemned the attacks in a statement, vowing that security forces would retaliate and bring the perpetrators to justice. Source: AP, AAP / Rahmat Khan
Rail traffic with Quetta was suspended following blasts on a rail bridge linking the provincial capital to the rest of Pakistan.
Police said they had found six as yet unidentified bodies near the site of the attack on the railway bridge.
Officials said militants also targeted police and security stations in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by area but least populated, killing at least 10 people in one attack.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an armed militant group took responsibility for the operation they called “Haruf” or “dark windy storm”.
In a statement to journalists, they claimed more attacks over the last day that have not yet been confirmed by authorities.
The group said four suicide bombers, including a woman from the southern port district of Gwadar, had been involved in an attack on the Bela paramilitary base.
Pakistani authorities did not confirm the suicide blasts but the provincial chief minister said three people had been killed at the base.
The BLA is the biggest of several ethnic insurgent groups battling the central government, saying it unfairly exploits gas and mineral resources in the province, where poverty is rife
It wants the expulsion of Chinese businesses and independence for Balochistan.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed that security forces would retaliate and bring those responsible to justice.
Bugti said more intelligence-based operations would be launched to weed out militants.
He hinted at curtailing mobile data services to stop militant coordination.
Armed men blocked a highway, marched passengers off vehicles and shot them after checking their identity cards on Sunday night, a senior superintendent of police Ayub Achakzai told Reuters.
As many as 35 vehicles were set on fire on the highway in the area of Musakhail.
“The armed men also not only killed passengers but also killed the drivers of trucks carrying coal,” said Hameed Zahir, deputy commissioner of the area.
Militants have targeted workers from Pakistan’s eastern province of Punjab, whom they see as exploiting their resources.
In the past, they also attacked Chinese interests and citizens in the province, where China runs the deepwater port of Gwadar and a gold and copper mine in its west.
The BLA said its fighters targeted military personnel travelling in civilian clothes. Pakistan’s interior ministry said the dead were innocent citizens.
