Protesters in Balochistan’s Surab district rejected Pakistan’s military account of deadly explosions that reportedly killed more than 20 people, saying civilian homes were bombed in an overnight aerial attack, as the deaths drew condemnation from Baloch political and rights groups.
The incident took place in the early hours of Wednesday when Pakistani Air Force jets reportedly carried out indiscriminate bombardment in residential areas of Gidar, Surab, killing civilians and causing significant damage to properties.
Related: In Pictures: Aftermath of Pakistani Airstrikes in Balochistan’s Surab
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing, said on Wednesday that militants in Surab were preparing explosives to be fitted in a vehicle when the material detonated prematurely, killing eight militants and injuring several others.
“An under-preparation vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) detonated while being prepared by terrorists,” the ISPR said, adding that several others were injured in the explosion.
It said other explosives stored at the site were caught in the initial blast, triggering further explosions that killed three civilians living nearby.
Following the explosions, a contingent of Pakistani forces and police reached the site and “launched a comprehensive joint clearance operation to track down the perpetrators and facilitators”.
The ISPR said Pakistani forces later tracked militants fleeing the area and killed 10 more in what it described as an effective operation. It put the total number of alleged militants killed at 18, adding that two soldiers were injured in an exchange of fire.
Affected residents, however, rejected the military’s account, saying their homes were destroyed and their relatives were killed and injured in aerial strikes carried out by Pakistani forces during the night.
Photographs from the area showed injured children, women and elderly residents, as well as the bodies of people said to have been killed in the bombardment.
Following the attack, local residents and rescue teams counted the casualties and compiled a preliminary list of those killed. Women and children were reported among the dead, including Murad Bano, wife of Rasool Bakhsh; one-year-old Alhair; two-year-olds Fatima and Zia-ur-Rehman; four-year-olds Sadia and Habiba; five-year-old Rabia; and 12-year-old Asim.
Residents said several bodies remained in military custody.
Relatives of the deceased and local residents staged a sit-in by placing the bodies in Surab’s main square along the N-25 Quetta-Karachi highway.
The protest disrupted traffic on the key highway, leaving long queues of vehicles stranded on both sides of the road.
Protesters described the ISPR statement as false and demanded justice, the return of bodies they said were being held by the military, and accountability for those responsible.
The deaths drew condemnation from Baloch political parties and rights organisations, which called for an end to military operations in civilian areas and an independent investigation.
The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) said the use of warplanes against residential areas showed that the state was systematically using force and fear against the Baloch population.
It described the bombing and civilian deaths as “state terrorism” and said the attack was part of what it called a decades-long policy of “Baloch genocide”, rather than an isolated incident.
“The bombing of civilian populations, the killing of civilians and the imposition of fear and terror is state terrorism,” the BYC said.
The National Party described the bombing of civilian areas as an “extreme form of oppression” and a serious violation of human rights.
It said the use of force against citizens would deepen mistrust and violence rather than resolve Balochistan’s problems, adding that a solution lay in political dialogue, the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights.
The party called on the government to halt military operations in Surab, protect the civilian population and provide urgent medical treatment to those injured.
Meanwhile, the Baloch Women Forum (BWF) criticised the deadly attack, saying targeting civilians inside their homes was a “blatant act of brutality” by Pakistani forces and a grave assault on civilian life.
“The Surab massacre exposes the extent of the brutality being inflicted on civilians in Balochistan by Pakistani security forces. Women, children and elderly people cannot be treated as targets under any claim of security or military necessity. Killing civilians in their homes is an unacceptable use of state force and must not be allowed to continue with impunity,” the forum said.
The BWF called for an immediate halt to airstrikes and military operations in civilian areas, accountability for those responsible and an independent and transparent investigation into the incident by international human rights organisations.
The Baloch National Movement (BNM) described the bombardment as a “blatant war crime” and said attacks on civilian populations violated international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.
The BNM spokesperson said the Pakistan Army was not acting alone in what he described as “indiscriminate force against civilians, home demolitions and forced displacement”, adding that local politicians and political parties facilitating such actions were also complicit.
The BNM urged international rights organisations to investigate the incident and called on the European Union to suspend Pakistan’s GSP+ status and associated trade preferences, saying they were conditional on compliance with international human rights standards.
It also urged international media organisations to independently examine evidence from Surab rather than rely on what it called “one-sided propaganda and false narratives” from the ISPR.
BNM Chairman Dr Naseem Baloch said images of injured and deceased children and elderly people resembled those emerging from Gaza and Palestine.
“This is not Gaza, it is Balochistan,” he said.
Dr Naseem said the bombing formed part of decades of enforced disappearances, alleged extrajudicial killings and military operations in Balochistan and called for international attention to what he described as an intensifying “genocide of the Baloch people”.