A militant attack on a highway in southwestern Pakistan had targeted public vehicles ranging from buses to goods trucks, killing at least 23 people before they set 10 vehicles on fire, according to reports by officials.
A senior superintendent of police, Ayub Achakzai, had told Reuters that the men had been armed and had barred the route to the restive province of Balochistan on Sunday night. The Superintendent also revealed that the militants had forced the passengers off the vehicles, and shot them after looking at their identity cards.
The Pakistan Interior Minister, Mohsin Naqvi, had said that 23 people had been killed, although Achakzai had put the toll at 22.
The militants in Pakistan have been fighting a decades-old ethnic insurgency to demand the secession of the resource-rich province of Balochistan from Pakistan and lately, they have targeted workers from the eastern province of Punjab whom they view as exploiting their resources.
The Balochistan Liberation Army group had released a statement saying that its fighters had targeted military personnel traveling in civilian clothes, and they were shot after being identified.
However, Pakistan’s interior ministry said the dead were innocent citizens irregardless.
The office of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reacted by condemning the attack in a statement, vowing that security forces would counterattack and bring those responsible to justice.
