Pakistan: Over 70 Dead As Gunmen Storm Highways, Execute Civilians In 24 Hours Of Terror

A massive coordinated terror attack on several locations in southwestern Pakistan has left at least 70 dead over a 24-hour period of terror which started Sunday night.

The attacks were the work of a separatist group called the Baluch Liberation Army (BLA), which claimed responsibility. It started with bombings and gunfire targeting a national military camp in Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province, which left at least one soldier dead.

In the same area, gunmen stormed four police stations, setting vehicles on fire. By morning, a key bridge in the area was also attacked and destroyed. But the situation escalated when militants attacked a major highway in a town called Bela. They intercepted traffic and then proceeded to execute people, reports say.

Several groups of BLA gunmen went on a rampage, and other motorways were targeted as well, seemingly at random, though authorities say in some instances the attackers were seeking to kill individuals of specific ethnic groups.

"Vehicles travelling to and from Punjab were inspected, and individuals from Punjab were identified and shot," a regional report indicates.

Many of the reported dead are the militants themselves, amid a heavy police and military response. A list of some of the major attacks are as follows:

The country’s military said 14 soldiers and police, as well as 21 militants, were killed in fighting after the largest of the attacks, which targeted vehicles on a major highway in Bela, a town in Lasbela district.

In a separate attack in Musakhel district, local officials said at least 23 civilians were killed after attackers determined they were from Punjab, with 35 vehicles set ablaze.

And in Kalat, 10 people were reported to have been killed – five police and five civilians – after a police post and a highway were attacked.

In some places, the dead and wounded are still being accounted for, with recovered bodies being examined for identification.

The New York Times describes of the horrific moment where summary executions of civilians were carried out on a random highway:

The deadliest single attack in the campaign so far unfolded in Musakhel, a district in Baluchistan, officials said, when armed men stopped traffic on a highway and demanded that passengers on buses and trucks show them their identity cards, officials said.

The gunmen forced some of the passengers out of the vehicles, and then shot and killed them, officials said. Nearly all of the victims were from Punjab Province, officials said, and the gunmen set at least 10 buses and trucks ablaze before fleeing the area.

While the region has witnessed long-running, internecine violence, Monday marks one of the worst and most gruesome attacks in the modern history of Pakistan given the random nature of the attacks on civilians. As a result, there is growing anger among the populace at the major intelligence and security failure.

"No form of terrorism is acceptable in the country," Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said in addressing the nation. "Our fight against terrorism will continue until the complete elimination of the scourge."

The southwest region has witnessed separatist and radical Islamic terrorist organizations for years waging a long-running insurgency against the government and its foreign partners, accusing Islamabad of exploiting the population of the region.