Assist actually
unbiased journalism
Our mission is to ship unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds energy to account and exposes the reality.
Whether or not $5 or $50, each contribution counts.
Assist us to ship journalism with out an agenda.
Armed militants in southwestern Pakistan focused Punjabis by ordering them out of automobiles on a serious freeway and taking pictures them lifeless.
Between 30 and 40 attackers, reportedly from the Baloch Liberation Military (BLA), blocked a serious highway within the Musakhail district and intercepted buses, vans, and vehicles travelling between Punjab and Balochistan. They pressured passengers off automobiles, checked their identities, and shot 23 of those that recognized as Punjabi, in an assault that has shocked the nation.
Punjabis, the biggest ethnic group in Pakistan, are seen as dominant within the army, which is actively engaged in combating Balochistan’s separatist factions.
“Automobiles travelling to and from Punjab have been inspected, and people from Punjab have been recognized and shot,” native senior police official Najeeb Kakar was quoted as saying.
The attackers additionally set hearth to a minimum of 10 automobiles, leaving a path of destruction and panic. They stopped 22 automobiles on the freeway.
In a separate incident, gunmen killed a minimum of 9 individuals, together with 4 cops and 5 passers-by, within the Qalat district.
The BLA, a separatist militant group lively within the area, has claimed accountability for the assault, describing it as a part of its ongoing marketing campaign in opposition to what it phrases the “occupying Pakistani army”.
“We have now taken full management of all main highways throughout Balochistan, blocking them utterly,” it added.
Earlier, the group warned civilians to keep away from highways as they intensified their operations in opposition to safety personnel within the province. Later, safety forces killed a minimum of 12 insurgents.
Monday’s assaults weren’t the primary of their type, however the incident was among the many worst in recent times in Balochistan – a area affected by ethnic and separatist violence. It adopted a sample of focused assaults geared toward particular ethnic teams and authorities forces, exacerbating tensions in Pakistan’s largest however least-developed province.
A number of Western nations, together with the UK and the US, have categorised the BLA as a world terrorist organisation.
Daybreak newspaper, citing the Pakistan Institute for Battle and Safety Research, reported that there have been a minimum of 170 militant assaults in Balochistan final 12 months, which killed 151 civilians and 114 safety personnel.
Extra just lately, in October final 12 months, unidentified gunmen killed six labourers from Punjab in Kech district within the southern a part of Balochistan province, in what police described as a focused assault based mostly on ethnic background.
In 2019, gunmen stopped a bus close to Ormara within the Gwadar district in Balochistan and killed 14 individuals, together with navy, air drive, and coast guard personnel, after checking their identification playing cards.
In 2015, gunmen attacked a labourers’ camp close to Turbat in Balochistan, killing 20 building employees and injuring three others. The victims included employees from Sindh and Punjab.
The ethnic Baloch have incessantly protested within the province, accusing the authorities of utilizing extreme drive of their efforts to fight militancy. Baloch separatists have additionally just lately elevated their assaults on Pakistanis from neighbouring provinces who’re working in Balochistan. Pakistan has 4 provinces – Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh.
“All through historical past, they [the Baloch people, a unique ethno-linguistic group] have been the victims of marginalisation inside their respective nations,” says a report in The Worldwide Affairs Assessment.
Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the assault, in response to Radio Pakistan. “The terrorists liable for this incident might be severely punished,” he stated.
Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, stated the killing of harmless individuals was “an assault on all of humanity” and demanded that the culprits be delivered to justice.
In the meantime, GeoTV reported that, for the reason that Taliban regained management in Afghanistan in 2021, provinces adjoining to Afghanistan – Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan – have skilled a rise in terrorism-related incidents.
