A string of left dozens dead, officials said on Monday. The attacks targeted civilians and policemen and were carried out by separatist insurgents.
“We have confirmed 39 people killed in several coordinated attacks carried out by the BLA (Baluch Liberation Army) terrorists,” Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the Baluchistan provincial government, told AFP.
The attack took place in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan, which borders both Iran and Afghanistan. It was the most widespread assault by separatist insurgents in the area in many years.
Baluchistan is the country’s largest province by size, but it is also the least populated. Baluchistan remains largely underdeveloped and has high poverty levels. The region is and it is home to .
Several attacks across Baluchistan
The first attack took place overnight on Sunday in the Baluchistan district of Musakhail, senior police official Ayub Achakzai said, where militants set some 10 vehicles ablaze.
They targeted vehicles from buses to goods trucks, killing at least 23 people.
“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.
Then early on Monday, a second attack took place, where gunmen killed four police officers and five civilians in Qalat district.
Militants also set off explosives in a railway track in Bolan district, attacked a police station in Mastung district and attacked and burned vehicles in Gwadar district. No casualties were reported in those attacks.
Some 12 insurgents killed
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi released separate statements calling the attack in Musakhail “barbaric.”
Naqvi said in a statement that security had killed 12 insurgents who participated in the attacks. He said “terrorists and their facilitators will have no place to hide” in the country.
Baluchistan has been home to a long-running insurgency in Pakistan, who have been demanding independence from the central government. It has an array of separatist groups who mainly target security forces in the area.
Prios to the attack in Musakhail, the BLA had warned people to stay away from highways.
In a statement on Monday, the group did not officially take responsibility for the string of attacks, but it said it had inflicted heavy losses on security forces in the region.
jcg (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)
The post Pakistan: Baluchistan militant attacks leave dozens dead appeared first on Deutsche Welle.