In a horrifying incident early Monday morning, at least 23 people were brutally killed in Balochistan’s Musakhail district when armed men stopped trucks and buses, offloaded the passengers, and shot them after verifying their identities. The attack took place on the inter-provincial highway in the Rarasham area of the district, according to Musakhail Assistant Commissioner Najeeb Kakar.
“The dead are reportedly from Punjab,” AC Kakar confirmed, indicating that the victims were specifically targeted based on their ethnic background. The assailants not only killed the passengers but also set fire to 10 vehicles, further intensifying the violence.
Police and Levies officials quickly arrived at the scene to begin the grim task of shifting the bodies to a hospital. In remarks made to AFP, AC Kakar shared that three of the victims were from Balochistan, while the remaining were from Punjab. “Vehicles travelling to and from Punjab were inspected, and individuals from Punjab were identified and shot,” he added.
As of now, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and details about the perpetrators remain scarce. This incident marks the second such attack this year in Balochistan. In April, a similar tragedy occurred near Noshki city, where nine passengers were offloaded from a bus and shot dead after gunmen checked their ID cards.
These targeted killings have become a disturbing pattern in the region over the past few years. In October of last year, unidentified gunmen killed six laborers from Punjab in Turbat, Kech district. The police later confirmed that the killings were ethnically motivated, as the victims were specifically chosen based on their backgrounds.
Another harrowing incident took place in 2019, when gunmen stopped a bus near Ormara in Gwadar district and executed 14 people, including personnel from the Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guards, after checking their CNICs. Similarly, in 2015, gunmen attacked a laborers’ camp near Turbat, killing 20 construction workers and injuring three others in a pre-dawn assault. The victims in that attack were from Sindh and Punjab.
This latest act of violence underscores the ongoing ethnic tensions in Balochistan and the persistent threat to those traveling through the region. As the investigation unfolds, the families of the victims and the wider community are left grappling with the devastating impact of these targeted killings.
