In Balochistan’s Musakhel district, at least 23 Punjabis were killed when armed men targeted passengers, blocked roads, and torched vehicles.
According to government sources, gunmen shot and killed at least 22 individuals in southwest Pakistan on Monday after offloading them out of their vehicles and determining their ethnicity.
The attack took place early Monday in the district of Musakhail in restive Balochistan province, where security forces are fighting sectarian, ethnic and separatist violence.
“At least 22 people were killed and 5 injured when militants stopped several busses, trucks and vans on a highway connecting Punjab with Balochistan,” Najibullah Kakar, a senior official in Musakhail, told AFP.
“Vehicles travelling to and from Punjab were inspected, and individuals from Punjab were identified and shot,” he added.
According to Assistant Commissioner Musakhail Najeeb Kakar, armed men blocked the interprovincial highway in Musakhel’s Rarasham district and offloaded passengers, as reported by Dawn. They also set ten automobiles on fire.
He mentioned people have arrived at the scene and moved the bodies to a hospital.
Confirming the toll to AFP, Hameed Zehri, another senior official in the district, said, “It seems that the BLA (Baloch Liberation Army) terrorists are behind the incident.”
Balochistan’s chief minister, Sarfaraz Bugti, denounced the event and expressed condolences to the families of those deceased. He further stated that the Balochistan government will pursue the terrorists and that they will not be able to escape an exemplary fate.
For decades, Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan has witnessed a low-level insurgency and a harsh government response.
However, the huge and resource-rich province, home to the South Asian country’s ethnic Baluch minority, has seen an increase in violent attacks in recent months.
Who is behind these attacks?
The majority of these attacks have been claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist militant group and U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
The BLA is regarded as the largest armed group operating in Balochistan. It is allied with the Baloch Liberation Front, the other major separatist militant group operating in the region. Experts have noted that the BLA has several thousand members.
According to the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank, in the first three months of 2024 alone, the groups have launched 62 attacks, suggesting a sharp rise.
Reasons behind the sharp increase in attacks
Experts in Islamabad believe that the “recruitment of the separatist militant organizations has skyrocketed” recently which has enabled the group to “launch more attacks.”
Baloch, the Britain-based researcher, mentioned that “Islamabad’s counterinsurgency strategy, based on a militarized approach, is the root cause” of instability in Balochistan.
The Baluch youth does not “see any avenue for expressing their dissent,” the analyst furthered.
Activists have accused the Pakistani military of forcibly disappearing thousands of individuals and waging a “kill-and-dump” campaign against political activists and suspected armed separatists.
According to analysts, the Taliban’s takeover of neighboring Afghanistan has increased the capability of armed groups in the region, notably Baluch separatists.
Some of the military equipment and weapons left behind after the US military withdrawal in 2021 and taken by the Taliban have been discovered and exploited by Baluch armed organizations.
The influx of US weapons has “opened new avenues for these groups to thrive,” Baloch stated.
Pakistan is unwilling to address the deep-seated political problems that keep Balochistan unstable.
“If 20 years of kinetic operations have not solved anything, tt will not solve anything in the next 20 years,” the analyst noted.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province but continues be the poorest. The state’s harsh treatment towards the province can lead to distrastrous implications on regional stability.
