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

Gunmen shot dead 23 passengers after identifying them and robbing them from buses, vehicles and trucks in one of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan’s troubled southwest, police and officials said on Monday.

The killings took place overnight in Musakhail district of Balochistan province, police official Ayub Achakzai said. The attackers set at least 10 vehicles on fire before fleeing the scene.

In a separate attack early Monday, gunmen killed at least nine people, including four policemen and five bystanders, in Balochistan’s Qalat district, authorities said. Shooting was also reported in other parts of the province.

Militants blew up a railway line in the province’s Bolan district, disrupting rail traffic. Militants also attacked a police post in Balochistan’s Mastung district, but no casualties were reported.

In separate statements, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi described the attack in Musakhel as “barbaric” and vowed that those responsible would not escape justice.

Later, Naqvi also condemned the killings in Qalat.

The attack in Musakhel district came hours after the banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group warned people to stay away from highways as it has carried out attacks on security forces in different parts of the province. But no group has claimed responsibility for the overnight killings.

Often the separatists ask people for their identity cards, and then kidnap or kill those who come from Punjab or other provinces.

Last May, gunmen shot dead seven barbers in Gwadar, a coastal city in Balochistan.

In April, separatists killed nine people after kidnapping them from a bus on a highway in Balochistan, and the attackers also killed two people and wounded six others in another car they forced to stop. The Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attacks at the time.

Syed Mohammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security analyst, said the recent killings of non-Baloch people were an attempt by separatists to hurt the province economically.

Ali told the Associated Press that most of these attacks are carried out with the aim of weakening Balochistan economically, noting that “weakening Balochistan means weakening Pakistan.”

He said rebel attacks could hamper development work taking place in the province.

Separatists in Balochistan have frequently killed workers and other residents of the eastern Punjab region as part of a campaign to force them to leave the province, which has seen years of low-level insurgency.

Most of the previous killings have been blamed on the banned group and other groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. Islamist militants are also present in the region.