Gunmen Kill 23 in Balochistan Attack: Passengers Targeted After Highway Check and ID Verification

Gunmen Kill 23 in Balochistan Attack: Passengers Targeted After Highway Check and ID Verification

At least 23 people were killed in the fatal attack in Balochistan, Pakistan, on Monday when armed men targeted passengers coming from Punjab province.

The report mentioned they laid a siege to the inter-provincial highway in the district of Musakhel and dragged out passengers from trucks and buses at gunpoint, shot them at point-blank range after checking their identity cards. Finally, they set 10 vehicles on fire.

“Terrorist Act”

The dead have been identified as belonging from Punjab, and rescue services have initiated the procedure to shift the bodies to hospitals in the vicinity. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti has strongly condemned the attack as a “terrorist act” and condoled his deathly sentiments to the bereaved families. He assured that the provincial government would leave no stone unturned in apprehending the perpetrators and bringing them to book.

‘Innocent passengers’

Federal Minister Attaullah Tarar also condemned the incident as a brutal act against innocent passengers. In a statement posted by the PML-N on X, Tarar promised that those involved in the attack and their facilitators would face dire consequences.

Previous Attacks Saturday’s incident occurred five months after at least nine passengers were offloaded from buses near Noshki in April this year, and shot in the dead of night after their identities were checked.

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Previously in October, miscreants slaughtered six laborers from Punjab in Kech district’s Turbat area, leading police to suspect an ethnic angle in the targeted killings. A spate of such attacks thus proves how insecure the region is, as authorities continue to grapple with violence and ethnically related tension.