More than 60 people were killed in a terrorist attack in Pakistan’s Balochistan

QUETTA, Pakistan, Aug 26 (Reuters) – More than 60 people have been killed by separatist attacks on police stations, railways and highways in Pakistan’s restive province of Balochistan and retaliated by security forces, officials said on Monday.

The most widespread attack by ethnic insurgents over the years has been part of a decades-long effort to win secession from the resource-rich southwestern province, home to a strategic port and major China-led projects such as gold and copper mining.

“These attacks are a well-planned plan to create anarchy in Pakistan,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement, after security forces killed 12 militants in attacks on Sunday and Monday.

Pakistan’s military said 14 soldiers and police and 21 militants were killed in fighting after a series of attacks on a major highway targeting vehicles ranging from buses to cargo trucks.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has confirmed that it is not immediately known whether there are 12 terrorists.

Local officials said at least 23 passengers were killed and 35 vehicles were torched.

Rail traffic with Quetta was suspended following the blast on a rail bridge connecting the provincial capital with the rest of Pakistan and a rail link to neighboring Iran, said railway official Muhammad Kashib.

The police said that 6 unidentified bodies were found near the place where the attack took place on the railway bridge.

Militants also targeted police and security posts in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by area, killing at least 10 people, officials said.

The BLA is the largest of several ethnic insurgent groups that have been battling the central government for decades over alleged unfair exploitation of Balochistan’s gas and mineral resources. It expels China and demands independence for the province.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif vowed that the security forces would retaliate and bring the culprits to justice.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) ground force chief General Li Jiaming and Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir met on Monday, although the Pakistani military statement made no mention of the attacks.

“The meeting provided an opportunity for in-depth discussions on mutual interests, regional security, military training and measures to further enhance bilateral security cooperation,” it said.

The passengers were killed

On Sunday night, armed men blocked a highway in Balochistan, marched passengers from their vehicles and shot them dead after checking their identity cards, senior police superintendent Ayub Achakzai told Reuters.

35 vehicles, including trucks, were set ablaze on the highway in Musakhail area.

“The gunmen not only killed the passengers but also the drivers of the trucks carrying coal,” said Hamid Zahir, deputy commissioner of the area.

Militants have targeted workers from the eastern province of Punjab who they see as exploiting their resources.

In the past, they have attacked Chinese interests and civilians in the province, where China runs the strategic southern deep-sea port of Gwadar and a gold and copper mine to its west.

The BLA said it targeted military personnel who were traveling in civilian clothes.

Pakistan’s interior ministry said the dead were innocent civilians.

Six security personnel, three civilians and a tribal elder were among the ten people killed in a clash with armed militants who attacked a Balochistan Levies station in the central district of Kalat, police officer Dostein Khan Dashti said.

Officials said police stations were hit in the two southern coastal cities, but the number was yet to be confirmed.

Bordering both Iran and Afghanistan, Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province, but is sparsely populated and largely underdeveloped, with high levels of poverty.

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