Baloch gunmen massacre 40 people in two attacks in Pakistan's restive Balochistan

Karachi, August 26

Heavily-armed Baloch gunmen killed at least 40 people in two separate attacks in Pakistan's Balochistan province on Monday, as insurgent attacks spiked in the restive region bordering Afghanistan.

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.

According to Musakhail Assistant Commissioner Najeeb Kakar, around 10 armed men blocked the inter-provincial highway in the Rarasham area of the district and offloaded passengers from several buses.

“The dead are reportedly from Punjab,” he said. Apart from killings some of the vehicles were also set on fire.

Musakhel is approximately 450 kilometres northeast of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan.

The rebels regularly target people from the Punjab province by alleging that Punjabis are dominant in the armed forces which have been fighting the militants in the province.

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 incident, officials said that 11 people -- five civilians and six security personnel -- were killed in Kalat, also in Balochistan, authorities said.

Kalat is 150 km to the south of Quetta and is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Baloch tribes.

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

The banned militant organisation, Baloch Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for these attacks, which coincided with the 18th death anniversary of ethnic Baloch tribal leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti who was killed in a military operation.

The militant groups co-named its violence 'Operation Heroof' and simultaneously launched a slew of attacks in various districts of the province.

The Kalat attack came shortly after militants on Monday stopped passenger buses and trucks in Rarashim area of Musakhel district offloaded 23 passengers and shot them dead after identifying them as mostly passengers from Punjab.

“They carried out the attack early in the morning and then escaped into the nearby mountains,” SSP Kalat, Dostain Dashti, said on telephone.

He said security forces had launched a massive search operation in the area and were hunting for those who carried out the attack.