Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but poorest province, despite an abundance of untapped natural resources The Baloch Liberation Army is the most active militant separatist group in the region QUETTA/KARACHI: Police in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan confirmed a militant attack on an army camp late Sunday while gunmen separately killed 33, including 23 passengers who were taken off from vehicles and shot dead, officials said on Monday. Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has been the site of a decades-long separatist insurgency, with ethnic Baloch militants saying they are fighting what they see as the unfair exploitation of the province’s mineral and gas wealth by the federation. The Pakistani state denies the allegations and says it is working to uplift the impoverished province through various development schemes. The series of attacks in the province on Sunday and Monday pose a major challenge for the weak coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, which is battling economic meltdown and political opposition, as well as a rise in militant violence across the country. On Sunday, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent of several separatist groups operating in Balochistan, said it had attacked a security forces’ camp in Bela city in Balochistan’s Lasbela District. The camp is located around 515 kilometers from the provincial capital of Quetta. The BLA also said it had “taken full control of all major highways across Balochistan, blocking them completely.” A senior police officer in Bela confirmed the attack on the military camp. The army has not yet commented on the development. “Security clearance operation is going on as we can still hear sounds of gunshots and explosions from the camp,” Station House Officer (SHO) Bela Attaullah Jamoot told Arab News. Video clips widely shared on social media platforms WhatsApp and X showed a long queue of vehicles lined up on various roads on the key Quetta-Karachi highway in the Kalat and Mastung districts of the province. “The situation is not good in Khad Kocha,” Abdul Shakoor, a paramilitary Levies soldier, told Arab News about an area in Masung district, some 67 kilometers from Quetta. “There are reports that armed persons have blocked the highway, and they have blown up the Pakistan-Iran railway track near Khad Kocha.” Shakoor said there was no confirmation as yet of any casualties. ‘COWARDLY ATTACKS’ In a separate attack, a senior police official said passengers were taken off vehicles in Musa Khel, a district in the northeast of Balochistan, and at least 23 people were fatally shot dead after they were identified as hailing from the Punjab province. “Twenty-three people were killed after armed men dropped them off from vehicles and goods trucks near Rara Sham, an area in Musa Khel,” SSP Musa Khel, Ayoub Achakzai, told Arab News. PM Sharif called for a “thorough investigation” and “exemplary punishment” for those involved. No one has claimed responsibility for the killings yet but in the past, separatists in Balochistan have often killed workers and others from the country’s eastern Punjab as part of a campaign to force them to leave the province. Most such previous killings have been blamed on the outlawed BLA and other groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. In another attack, SSP Police, Dotain Dashti, said ten people, five of them civilians, were killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire in the province’s Kalat district. “The firing by armed men has left one policeman, four [paramilitary] levies’ personnel, and five citizens dead,” he said, adding that gunmen fled the scene and continued fighting with police in the city and on the highway. “We are fighting with armed men on the national highway and inside the city,” the police officer said, of the attack that remains unclaimed. Separately, Pakistan Railways suspended train services between Quetta and Sibi on Monday after a key railway bridge near the Dozan area of Bolan was blown up. Muhammad Kashfi, a spokesman for Pakistan Railways, told Arab News the bridge was attacked with explosive materials during the early hours of Monday. “Security forces have cordoned off the area and Pakistan Railways’ team has reached the site to assess the damages.” Kashif added. State-run Radio Pakistan said “terrorists have carried out cowardly attacks at several places,” without specifying where the assaults took place. “Security forces and law enforcement agencies responded effectively to these attacks, twelve terrorists have so far been killed and many others are injured,” Radio Pakistan added. “The operation will continue until the terrorists are eliminated.” The latest attacks coincide with the 18th anniversary of the killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, a prominent Baloch politician and tribal chief who was killed in a military operation on Aug. 26, 2006, sparking deadly protests and inflaming the insurgency in Balochistan. The impoverished province has seen an uptick in violence in the last few weeks, with separatist groups intensifying attacks in various parts of the province during Independence Day celebrations earlier this month, in which at least four people were killed. Last week, security forces said they had killed three BLA militants during an intelligence-based operation in Mastung.