Gunmen kill 23 passengers taken from vehicles in an attack in southwest Pakistan

Gunmen shot and killed 23 passengers in one of the deadliest attacks in southwest Pakistan, according to police and officials on Monday.

The killings took place overnight in Musakhail, a district in Baluchistan province, where the attackers also burned at least 10 vehicles before fleeing the scene, as reported by senior police official Ayub Achakzai.

In a separate attack in Qalat district in Baluchistan, gunmen killed at least nine people, including four police officers and five passersby. There were additional reports of shootings in other parts of the province.

Insurgents blew up a railway track in Bolan district, disrupting railroad traffic. In Mastung district, gunmen attacked a police station with no reported casualties.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack in Musakhail as “barbaric” and promised justice for the perpetrators.

Naqvi also denounced the killings in Qalat district.

The outlawed Baluch Liberation Army separatist group had warned people to stay away from highways before launching attacks on security forces in the province. However, no group claimed responsibility for the overnight killings.

Separatists often target non-Baluch people by asking for their ID cards and then abducting or killing those from other provinces.

In May, seven barbers were fatally shot by gunmen in Gwadar, a port city in Baluchistan.

In April, separatists killed nine people after abducting them from a bus on a highway in Baluchistan, and also attacked another car, resulting in two deaths and six injuries. BLA claimed responsibility for those attacks at the time.

Security analyst Syed Muhammad Ali stated that the recent killings of non-Baluch people by separatists aim to harm the province economically. He emphasized that such attacks could hinder development work in Baluchistan, which ultimately impacts Pakistan as a whole.

Separatists in Baluchistan have a history of targeting workers and individuals from Punjab to force them out of the province, which has been plagued by a low-level insurgency for years. Most of these attacks are attributed to outlawed groups seeking independence from the central government in Islamabad, along with the presence of Islamic militants in the region.