More than 20 people were shot dead by terrorists in Pakistan’s Balochistan after militants stopped traffic on a highway, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported on Monday.
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“As a result of the terrorist attack, 23 people were killed, disembarked from buses traveling from Punjab (Pakistan province) to Baluchistan,” the publication said, which refers to the head of the administration of the province of Balochistan, Sharfaraz Bugti, who published a post about the terrorist attack on his account on the social network X.
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All the dead were Punjabis by birth and ethnic status, the report also said.
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Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif condemned the attack, calling it an inhumane killing of civilians, and expressed deep condolences to the families of the victims, the newspaper reported.
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The publication notes that the terrorist detachment that blocked the Punjab-Balochistan highway and consisted of 30-40 people belonged to the most active armed militant group in the region, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which officially stated that its fighters committed a terrorist attack.
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According to the newspaper, the attack is the second shooting of intercity transport passengers by militants this year. In a previous attack of this kind in April 2024, nine passengers on a bus traveling from Punjab to Balochistan were killed, the publication recalls.
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There were at least 170 militant attacks in Balochistan in 2023, killing 151 civilians and 114 security forces, according to the Pakistan Institute of Conflict and Security Studies.
