Nine people were shot dead by rebels in Pakistan’s Balochistan province late Thursday after they were pulled off passenger buses. The victims were targeted based on their identity cards showing Punjab origins, as per reports.According to Dawn, two buses travelling from Quetta to Punjab were intercepted near Sur-Dakai along the Loralai-Zhob highway. Armed men reportedly blocked the road, boarded the vehicles, and began checking passengers’ CNICs. Those identified as residents of Punjab were taken off at gunpoint and later killed. “The terrorists forced the two passenger buses to stop on a highway and pulled nine passengers out. They took them in an area nearby and killed all of them,” said local official Naveed Alam, speaking to AFP.District administrator Saadat Hussain confirmed that the bodies were later recovered from the roadside. “The forces found the dead bodies all belong to different areas of Punjab,” he told AFP.“The terrorists must have taken the passengers’ identification documents with them,” AC Alam told Dawn.While no group initially claimed responsibility, the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLA) later took credit. The group has waged a long-running insurgency against the Pakistani state, frequently targeting non-Baloch civilians and military personnel.The Baloch insurgency, which seeks independence from Islamabad, has intensified in recent years despite claims by Pakistani authorities that it is under control. President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the killings, blaming “terrorists from the outlawed BLA” for seeking to destabilise the country.The killings echo a similar attack last year in which 23 passengers were killed. Human rights groups and separatists have accused Pakistan’s security forces of brutal counter-insurgency tactics, including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
