At least 38 killed in multiple armed attacks in Pakistan -VIDEO/UPDATED
Armed men have killed at least 38 people in three assaults amid other reported incidents of violence in Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan.
Several buses and trucks were stopped overnight on Sunday by armed men who checked passengers’ IDs before shooting 23, setting 10 vehicles ablaze and escaping in the remote area of Rarasham in Musakhail district, News.Az reports citing Al Jazeera.Elsewhere in the province, nine people, including four police officers and five passersby, were shot dead in Qalat district.
On the same day, six people were killed as a railway track was blown up in Bolan, a police station in Mastung was attacked, and several vehicles were burned in Gwadar city of Balochistan.
The province has had a simmering rebellion for years, with several armed groups present. Rights groups have denounced Pakistan’s response to the movement, which they document as including enforced disappearances and other forms of state repression.
The attacks, along the highway that connects to the province of Punjab, came shortly after the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) warned people to stay away from highways in the province.
In a statement, the group said its fighters targeted military personnel travelling in civilian clothes, who were shot once they were identified.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior, however, said the dead were innocent citizens.
RECOMMENDED STORIES
Gunmen fatally shot 23 passengers after forcibly removing them from buses, vehicles, and trucks in one of the deadliest attacks in restive southwestern Pakistan, according to police and officials on Monday.
The killings occurred overnight in Musakhail, a district in Baluchistan province, senior police official Ayub Achakzai said. The attackers burned at least 10 vehicles before fleeing the scene, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
In a separate attack early Monday, gunmen killed at least nine people, including four police officers and five passersby, in Qalat district in Baluchistan, authorities said. There were also reports of shootings in other parts of the province.
Insurgents blew up a railway track in Bolan, a district in the province, disrupting railroad traffic. Gunmen also attacked a police station in Mastung district in Baluchistan, but there were no reported casualties.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in separate statements called the attack in Musakhail “barbaric” and vowed that those who were behind it would not escape justice.
#Pakistan #Terror Attack Video: Dozens Dead
— News.Az (@news_az) August 26, 2024
Pakistan's interior minister says 23 people were killed in a #Terroristattack in the south of the country. pic.twitter.com/ncA9YZLQbR
Similar news
