Written by Salim Ahmed and Saud Mahsud
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Separatist militants attacked police stations, railway lines and vehicles on highways in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, killing at least 39 people, officials said on Monday, in the largest attack by ethnic insurgents in years.
Militants have waged a decades-long ethnic insurgency demanding secession from the resource-rich southwestern province, home to a number of major Chinese-led projects including a strategic port and a gold mine.
Officials said the largest attacks targeted vehicles ranging from buses to cargo trucks on a major highway, killing at least 23 people and setting 10 vehicles ablaze.
A railway line between Pakistan and Iran and a railway bridge linking the provincial capital Quetta to the rest of the country were also hit during the attacks, said railway official Mohammad Kashif, adding that rail traffic with Quetta had been halted.
Police said they found six unidentified bodies near the site of the attack on the railway bridge.
Officials said gunmen also targeted police and security stations in the sprawling province, killing at least 10 people.
The Balochistan Liberation Army militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement emailed to journalists, claiming responsibility for several other attacks, including one on a major paramilitary base, although Pakistani authorities have yet to confirm this.
Passengers killed
Gunmen blocked a highway in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province, on Sunday evening, dragged passengers from vehicles and shot them after checking their identity cards, Ayub Achakzai, a senior police commander, told Reuters.
“The gunmen not only killed the passengers but also the drivers of the trucks carrying the coal,” said Hamid Zahir, the district’s deputy commissioner, adding that at least 10 trucks were set on fire after their drivers were killed.
The militants have targeted workers from eastern Punjab province who they see as exploiting their resources. In the past, they have also targeted Chinese interests and Chinese nationals working in the province.
China operates the strategic deep-water port of Gwadar in southern Balochistan, as well as a gold and copper mine in the west.
The Balochistan Liberation Movement said its fighters targeted military personnel travelling in civilian clothes and shot them after identifying them.
The Pakistani Interior Ministry said the dead were innocent citizens.
Stations that were attacked
Six security personnel, three civilians and a tribal leader were among the 10 killed in clashes with militants who stormed a Balochistan forces post in the central Kalat district, police official Dostin Khan Dashti said.
Officials said police stations were also attacked in the two southern coastal cities, but the death toll has not yet been confirmed.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office condemned the attacks in a statement, vowing that security forces would respond and bring those responsible to justice.
Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, is Pakistan’s largest province in size, but it is the least populous and remains largely underdeveloped, with high levels of poverty.