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Terror Attacks Kill Dozens In Pakistan

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

ISLAMABAD(Worthy News) – Dozens of people were killed in southwestern Pakistan, where separatists and other Islamic terrorists attacked targets before the military responded.

Monday’s attacks claimed the lives of at least 38 people while the military killed 21 insurgents, marking one of the deadliest days of violence in the restive Baluchistan province, officials said.

Twenty-three people were fatally shot overnight after being taken from buses, vehicles, and trucks in Musakhail, a district in Baluchistan, senior police official Ayub Achakzai told media. The attackers reportedly burned at least ten cars before fleeing.

In a separate attack, gunmen killed at least nine people, including four police officers and five passersby, in Baluchistan’s Qalat district, authorities said.

The bodies of six people were found in Bolan, where insurgents also blew up a railway track. They also attacked a police station in Mastung and attacked and burned vehicles in Gwadar, all districts in Baluchistan. No casualties were reported in those attacks, the media said.

The military said 14 security forces were “martyred” while responding to the attacks, but it was not clear whether they were included in the overall death toll.

Baluchistan has seen a long-running insurgency as separatists have been demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad.

VIOLENCE CONTINUES

Although Pakistani authorities say they have quelled the insurgency, Monday’s attacks showed violence in Baluchistan has persisted. It also added to concerns among minority Christians who have been targeted on several occasions in the Muslim-majority nation.

The attack in Musakhail came hours after the outlawed Baluch Liberation Army separatist group warned people to stay away from highways as they launched attacks on security forces in various parts of the province.

In a statement on Monday, the BLA only said it inflicted “heavy losses” on security forces in attacks in the province. Pakistan’s military and government did not immediately comment on that claim. The group often provides exaggerated figures of troop casualties, critics say.

It said one female suicide bomber also took part in the attack on security forces. Separatists are known to ask people for their identity documents and then abduct or kill those who are from outside the province.

Many recent victims have reportedly come from neighboring Punjab province.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi called the attacks in Musakhail “barbaric” and vowed that those behind it would not escape justice.

There were no isolated incidents, as in May, gunmen fatally shot seven barbers in Gwadar, a port city in Baluchistan.

In April, separatists killed nine people after abducting them from a bus on a highway in Baluchistan. They also killed two people and wounded six in another car they forced to stop. The BLA claimed responsibility for those attacks.

Uzma Bukhari, a spokesperson for the Punjab provincial government, denounced the latest killings, saying the “attacks are a matter of grave concern” and urging the Baluchistan government to “step up efforts to eliminate BLA terrorists.”

In May, gunmen fatally shot seven barbers in Gwadar, a port city in Baluchistan.

Syed Muhammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security analyst, said the latest killings of non-Baluch people are an attempt by separatists to harm the province economically.

Ali said most such attacks are carried out to weaken Baluchistan economically, noting that “the weakening of Baluchistan means the weakening of Pakistan.”

Separatists in Baluchistan have often killed workers and others from the country’s eastern Punjab region as part of a campaign to force them to leave the province.

Most such previous killings have been blamed on the outlawed group and others demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. The Pakistani Taliban also have a presence in the province, and they are closely connected to the BLA.

In a separate attack on Monday in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a roadside bomb killed four people and wounded 12 others in North Waziristan district, said local administration official Abid Khan.

The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.