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Pakistan

What’s behind the bloodiest recent attacks in Baluchistan province?

Published:Tuesday | August 27, 2024 | 12:08 AM
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Volunteers and relatives load the body of a passenger, who was killed by gunmen on a highway in Musakhail, into a vehicle after collecting it from a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan, on Monday, August 26.
AP
Volunteers and relatives load the body of a passenger, who was killed by gunmen on a highway in Musakhail, into a vehicle after collecting it from a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan, on Monday, August 26.
People look at burnt vehicles, torched by gunmen after killing passengers on a highway in Musakhail, a district in Baluchistan province in southwestern Pakistan, on Monday, August 26.
AP
People look at burnt vehicles, torched by gunmen after killing passengers on a highway in Musakhail, a district in Baluchistan province in southwestern Pakistan, on Monday, August 26.
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ISLAMABAD (AP):

Multiple attacks in Pakistan’s restive southwest have killed at least 38 people, the highest death toll in a 24-hour period blamed on separatists in Baluchistan province in recent years.

Gunmen mowed down people after dragging them off buses, cars and trucks. Police and passers-by were fatally shot in broad daylight in another district. A railway bridge connecting the province with the rest of the country was blown up. A police station was attacked. There have been other reports of shootings.

The assaults were more audacious and brutal than the ones usually perpetrated by militants, who normally target security personnel or installations.

Though Pakistan’s largest province, Baluchistan is its least populated, made up largely of high mountains. It’s also a hub for the country’s ethnic Baluch minority, whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government. That has fuelled a separatist insurgency demanding independence. Islamic militants also operate in the province.

The government says it has largely quelled the violence, but assaults persist with raids by security forces and counter-attacks.

The main player is the outlawed Baluchistan Liberation Army, which Pakistan and the US have designated as a terrorist organisation. It opposes the Pakistani government and wants a sovereign state that includes territories in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. It targets security forces in Baluchistan and sometimes Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and economic hub in Sindh province next door.

Islamabad-based security analyst Syed Muhammad Ali said the latest killings are an attempt to harm the province economically, because “the weakening of Baluchistan means the weakening of Pakistan”.

While insurgent attacks aim to discourage people from outside the region from travelling, trading, or working in the province, they also make life harder for the Balochis by discouraging investment, aid and disrupting the flow of goods and services, Ali said.