Pakistan reels after militants pull passengers out of buses on major highway and shoot them dead

Armed militants in southwestern Pakistan targeted Punjabis by ordering them out of vehicles on a major highway and shooting them dead.

Between 30 and 40 attackers, reportedly from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), blocked a major road in the Musakhail district and intercepted buses, vans, and trucks travelling between Punjab and Balochistan. They forced passengers off vehicles, checked their identities, and shot 23 of those who identified as Punjabi, in an attack that has shocked the country.

Punjabis, the largest ethnic group in Pakistan, are seen as dominant in the military, which is actively engaged in combating Balochistan’s separatist factions.

“Vehicles travelling to and from Punjab were inspected, and individuals from Punjab were identified and shot,” local senior police official Najeeb Kakar was quoted as saying.

The attackers also set fire to at least 10 vehicles, leaving a trail of destruction and panic. They stopped 22 vehicles on the highway.

In a separate incident, gunmen killed at least nine people, including four police officers and five passers-by, in the Qalat district.

The BLA, a separatist militant group active in the region, has claimed responsibility for the attack, describing it as part of its ongoing campaign against what it terms the “occupying Pakistani military”.

“We have taken full control of all major highways across Balochistan, blocking them completely,” it added.

Earlier, the group warned civilians to avoid highways as they intensified their operations against security personnel in the province. Later, security forces killed at least 12 insurgents.

Monday’s attacks were not the first of their kind, but the incident was among the worst in recent years in Balochistan – a region plagued by ethnic and separatist violence. It followed a pattern of targeted attacks aimed at specific ethnic groups and government forces, exacerbating tensions in Pakistan’s largest but least-developed province.

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Several Western countries, including the UK and the US, have classified the BLA as a global terrorist organisation.

Dawn newspaper, citing the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, reported that there were at least 170 militant attacks in Balochistan last year, which killed 151 civilians and 114 security personnel.

More recently, in October last year, unidentified gunmen killed six labourers from Punjab in Kech district in the southern part of Balochistan province, in what police described as a targeted attack based on ethnic background.

In 2019, gunmen stopped a bus near Ormara in the Gwadar district in Balochistan and killed 14 people, including navy, air force, and coast guard personnel, after checking their identity cards.

In 2015, gunmen attacked a labourers’ camp near Turbat in Balochistan, killing 20 construction workers and injuring three others. The victims included workers from Sindh and Punjab.

The ethnic Baloch have frequently protested in the province, accusing the authorities of using excessive force in their efforts to combat militancy. Baloch separatists have also recently increased their attacks on Pakistanis from neighbouring provinces who are working in Balochistan. Pakistan has four provinces – Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh.

“Throughout history, they [the Baloch people, a unique ethno-linguistic group] have been the victims of marginalisation within their respective countries,” says a report in The International Affairs Review.

Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack, according to Radio Pakistan. “The terrorists responsible for this incident will be severely punished,” he said.

Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, said the killing of innocent people was “an assault on all of humanity” and demanded that the culprits be brought to justice.

Meanwhile, GeoTV reported that, since the Taliban regained control in Afghanistan in 2021, provinces adjacent to Afghanistan – Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan – have experienced an increase in terrorism-related incidents.