In the early hours of Saturday, nine individuals from Punjab were killed near Balochistan’s Noshki when gunmen intercepted a Taftan-bound bus on the Quetta-Taftan Highway N-40.
Authorities reported that the gunmen stopped the bus at a blockade near Sultan Charhai, forced the passengers off, checked their identities, and then abducted nine individuals. Their bodies were later discovered shot dead under a nearby bridge, approximately an hour and a half after the abduction.
In related incidents within the same vicinity, armed assailants destroyed a railway track with an explosion and targeted a security forces’ camp. The attack on the camp, marked by intense gunfire and explosions, lasted more than twenty minutes.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a ‘pro-independence’ group, claimed responsibility for these attacks in a statement released on Saturday. Jeeyand Baloch, the spokesperson for the BLA, stated that the Special Tactical Operations Squad (STOS) of the BLA executed a blockade and vehicle-checking operation at Sultan Charhai on the RCD highway, three kilometers from Noshki city.
He said the operation lasted three hours and involved stopping various vehicles, based on information from the BLA’s intelligence wing that Pakistani intelligence officials were traveling in civilian clothes on public buses. During the searches, nine individuals were detained from one of the buses. They were allegedly found with multiple identification cards and a large number of SIM cards, and were identified as intelligence officials before being executed.
Jeeyand Baloch also confirmed that BLA fighters were responsible for the railway track explosion and the attack on the military camp, claiming that these actions resulted in significant casualties and material losses to the forces.
The BLA reiterated its intention to continue its attacks against what it calls “enemy forces,” including uniformed personnel, intelligence officials in plain clothes, and local facilitators, until their demands for the withdrawal of Pakistani forces and recognition of an independent Baloch nation are met.
The attacks drew strong condemnation from Pakistani state officials, including President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who have called for a detailed report on the incident.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti expressed deep grief and sorrow, stating that the perpetrators would be dealt with sternly and that militants would not succeed in their “nefarious” designs. Addressing the media at the Chief Minister’s House, CM Bugti announced that security plans would be revisited following the attack, and an inquiry was underway to probe response times. He stated that anyone found neglecting their responsibilities would be held accountable.
CM Bugti also said that the government was open to dialogue with separatists to ensure a peaceful resolution to the ongoing insurgency, affirming, “If a situation can be resolved through dialogue, then we are not against it, but the writ of the state must be and will be enforced.”
Meanwhile, a BBC Urdu report quoted other passengers from the same bus, indicating that more individuals from Punjab were traveling on the bus but were not harmed by the gunmen even after their identity cards were checked. One passenger, Zahid, recounted how the armed individuals demanded those who were Punjabi to come out, but only a few responded, while the rest remained seated, leading the armed individuals to start checking everyone’s identity cards, and detaining nine of them. Another passenger, Nawaz Khan, mentioned that despite the identity checks, the rest of the passengers identified as Punjabis were not harmed.
Further details from the Pakistani newspaper Jang revealed that the bus was traveling from Quetta to Taftan, and among those killed, eight are reported to be government officials. The report published after the attack mentioned that there is currently no available information about the identities of the passengers on the bus, except that the eight individuals who were taken are reported to be government officials, and the identities of their institutions have not yet been disclosed.