Latest news with #BalochSeparatists
Asharq Al-Awsat
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Pakistan Says Armed Men Kidnap, Kill Nine Bus Passengers in Restive Province
Authorities retrieved from Pakistan's mountains the bullet-ridden bodies of nine passengers kidnapped by armed men in a spate of bus attacks in the troubled southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said on Friday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Baloch separatists, agitating for a greater share of resources, have figured in similar past killings of those identified as hailing from the eastern province of Punjab, Reuters said. Government official Naveed Alam said the bodies with bullet wounds were found in the mountains overnight, while a provincial government spokesman, Shahid Rind, said the passengers were seized from two buses on Thursday evening. "We are identifying the bodies and reaching out to their families," he said, adding that the victims, working as laborers in the restive region, were returning home to Punjab. Ethnic insurgents accuse Pakistan's government of stealing regional resources to fund expenditure elsewhere, mainly in the sprawling province of Punjab. Security forces foiled three insurgent attacks on Thursday before the kidnappings, Rind said, accusing neighbor and arch rival India of backing the militants. The Indian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. New Delhi denies accusations by Islamabad that it is funding, training and backing the militants in a bid to stoke instability in the region, where Pakistan relies on China among international investors to develop mines and mineral processing. "India is now doubling down to further its nefarious agenda through its proxies," the Pakistani army said in a statement in remarks that followed the worst fighting in nearly three decades between the nuclear-armed foes in May. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the strongest among the insurgent groups long operating in the area bordering Afghanistan and Iran, a mineral-rich region. In recent months, separatists have stepped up their attacks, mostly targeting Pakistan's military, which has launched an intelligence-based offensive against them. Their other main targets have been Chinese nationals and interests, in particular the strategic port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, with the separatists accusing Beijing of helping Islamabad to exploit resources. The BLA blew up a railway track and took over 400 train passengers hostage in an attack in March that killed 31.
Reuters
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Pakistan says armed men kidnap, kill nine bus passengers in restive province
QUETTA, Pakistan, July 11 (Reuters) - Authorities retrieved from Pakistan's mountains the bullet-ridden bodies of nine passengers kidnapped by armed men in a spate of bus attacks in the troubled southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said on Friday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Baloch separatists, agitating for a greater share of resources, have figured in similar past killings of those identified as hailing from the eastern province of Punjab. Government official Naveed Alam said the bodies with bullet wounds were found in the mountains overnight, while a provincial government spokesman, Shahid Rind, said the passengers were seized from two buses on Thursday evening. "We are identifying the bodies and reaching out to their families," he said, adding that the victims, working as labourers in the restive region, were returning home to Punjab. Ethnic insurgents accuse Pakistan's government of stealing regional resources to fund expenditure elsewhere, mainly in the sprawling province of Punjab. Security forces foiled three insurgent attacks on Thursday before the kidnappings, Rind said, accusing neighbour and arch rival India of backing the militants. The Indian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. New Delhi denies accusations by Islamabad that it is funding, training and backing the militants in a bid to stoke instability in the region, where Pakistan relies on China among international investors to develop mines and mineral processing. "India is now doubling down to further its nefarious agenda through its proxies," the Pakistani army said in a statement in remarks that followed the worst fighting in nearly three decades between the nuclear-armed foes in May. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the strongest among the insurgent groups long operating in the area bordering Afghanistan and Iran, a mineral-rich region. In recent months, separatists have stepped up their attacks, mostly targeting Pakistan's military, which has launched an intelligence-based offensive against them. Their other main targets have been Chinese nationals and interests, in particular the strategic port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, with the separatists accusing Beijing of helping Islamabad to exploit resources. The BLA blew up a railway track and took over 400 train passengers hostage in an attack in March that killed 31.
Al Arabiya
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Pakistan says armed men kidnap, kill nine bus passengers in restive province
Authorities retrieved from Pakistan's mountains the bullet-ridden bodies of nine passengers kidnapped by armed men in a spate of bus attacks in the troubled southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said on Friday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Baloch separatists, agitating for a greater share of resources, have figured in similar past killings of those identified as hailing from the eastern province of Punjab. Government official Naveed Alam said the bodies with bullet wounds were found in the mountains overnight, while a provincial government spokesman, Shahid Rind, said the passengers were seized from two buses on Thursday evening. 'We are identifying the bodies and reaching out to their families,' he said, adding that the victims, working as laborers in the restive region, were returning home to Punjab. Ethnic insurgents accuse Pakistan's government of stealing regional resources to fund expenditure elsewhere, mainly in the sprawling province of Punjab. Security forces foiled three insurgent attacks on Thursday before the kidnappings, Rind said, accusing neighbor and arch rival India of backing the militants. The Indian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. New Delhi denies accusations by Islamabad that it is funding, training and backing the militants in a bid to stoke instability in the region, where Pakistan relies on China among international investors to develop mines and mineral processing. 'India is now doubling down to further its nefarious agenda through its proxies,' the Pakistani army said in a statement in remarks that followed the worst fighting in nearly three decades between the nuclear-armed foes in May. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the strongest among the insurgent groups long operating in the area bordering Afghanistan and Iran, a mineral-rich region. In recent months, separatists have stepped up their attacks, mostly targeting Pakistan's military, which has launched an intelligence-based offensive against them. Their other main targets have been Chinese nationals and interests, in particular the strategic port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, with the separatists accusing Beijing of helping Islamabad to exploit resources. The BLA blew up a railway track and took over 400 train passengers hostage in an attack in March that killed 31.
Arab News
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Gunmen kidnap and kill nine bus passengers in Pakistan's Balochistan
QUETTA: Armed men killed nine bus passengers after kidnapping them in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Friday, in the latest attack on commuters hailing from the eastern Punjab province. The attackers took the passengers with them after intercepting two buses on the N-70 highway in Balochistan's Zhob district, according to a senior official of the paramilitary Levies force. Their bodies were found in the nearby mountains in the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack on the Punjab-bound buses, but suspicion is likely to fall on Baloch separatist groups who have been involved in multiple such attacks targeting ethnic Punjabi commuters in the past. 'Armed men intercepted two Lahore-bound passenger buses at the Balochistan-Punjab national highway near Sara Dhaka area and kidnapped nine ethnic Punjabi travelers after checking their national identity cards (NICs),' Yasin Mandokhail, the Levies station house officer (SHO) in Zhob district, told Arab News. 'The bodies are being shifted to Rakhni Hospital for medico-legal procedure.' Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the Balochistan government, said security forces immediately responded to the attack but the attackers fled under the cover of darkness. 'Security forces are conducting a thorough search operation in the area,' he said in a statement. Balochistan, Pakistan's largest but most impoverished province, has been the site of a long-running insurgency that has intensified in recent months, with separatist militants attacking security forces, government officials and installations and people from other provinces, particularly Punjab, who they see as 'outsiders.' The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the strongest of a number of insurgent groups long operating in the mineral-rich region bordering Afghanistan and Iran, who accuse the central government of stealing their resources to fund development in Punjab. The federal government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan, where China has been building a deep-sea port as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. Last August, nearly two dozen passengers were killed after BLA militants forcibly removed them from Punjab-bound buses in a string of coordinated attacks in Balochistan. Another seven Punjabi commuters were offboarded from buses and killed in Balochistan's Barkhan district in February this year. In March, the BLA separatist hijacked a train with hundreds of passengers aboard near Balochistan's Bolan Pass, which resulted in the deaths of 23 soldiers, three railway employees and five passengers. At least 33 insurgents were also killed. On Thursday, Pakistan Railways suspended train service from Balochistan provincial capital of Quetta to the rest of the country for a day after law enforcement agencies shared security concerns.
Arab News
17-06-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Islamabad says will not let militants exploit Iran-Israel conflict to attack Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Tuesday that Islamabad would not allow militants based in Iran and Afghanistan to take advantage of Tehran's ongoing conflict with Israel to increase its 'terrorist' attacks in neighboring Pakistan. Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province shares porous borders with Afghanistan to the north and Iran to the west. It has experienced a surge in militant attacks by Baloch separatists and other armed groups in recent years, who demand a greater share of Balochistan's mineral resources for locals. Pakistan has remained at odds with both Afghanistan and Iran over instability at its shared, porous borders with the two countries. Islamabad blames Kabul for not taking action against Pakistani Taliban militants who it says regularly launch attacks in Pakistan's Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces, allegations that Afghanistan denies. Ties between Islamabad and Tehran have also been strained in the past, with both nations blaming each other for not rooting out militancy in their countries. 'Pakistan leadership has recently had very good, close coordination with both the leadership in Iran and with leadership in Afghanistan ensuring that their soil is not used by the terrorist groups to carry out terrorist attacks in the country,' Iqbal told foreign media reporters during a briefing in Islamabad. He added that Pakistani security forces were carrying out operations against militant groups in Balochistan and were confident they could 'control' them. 'They are Indian-sponsored terrorist groups and they have already taken a hit with the defeat of India in the limited war we had and won't get any space now [in the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict],' the minister said. Iqbal was referring to Pakistan's days-long military confrontation with India last month in which both countries targeted each other with artillery fire, missiles, fighter jets and drone strikes before Washington brokered a ceasefire on May 10. Regional tensions have flared once again after Israel attacked Iran's nuclear facilities and military leadership last Friday. The two countries have traded missiles since then, with world leaders calling for dialogue and restraint. The minister hoped Irani forces would not allow militants based in their country to carry out attacks against Pakistan. 'We hope and are confident that the leadership in Iran will also exercise its full jurisdiction to make sure that no groups use the territory of Iran to carry out any terrorist action in Pakistan,' he said. He called on the international community, especially the G7 countries, to intervene and stop Iran's conflict with Israel from escalating further. 'This can have very serious consequences because this region supplies energy to the global economy and if there is any disruption in the supply of energy through escalation in this conflict, it will not just affect Iran, it will not just affect Israel, it will affect the entire world,' Iqbal warned. CPEC WORK TO CONTINUE Iqbal said the Israel-Iran conflict will not affect the pace of development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multi-billion infrastructure network between Pakistan and China, as the military confrontation was not taking place in Pakistan. China has invested $65 billion in CPEC, its flagship project which is part of its Belt and Road Initiative, to build roads, railways, pipelines, and ports connecting China to the Arabian Sea. A key project is the deep-sea port at Gwadar in Balochistan, a province that faces a long-running separatist insurgency. 'So, our work in Pakistan will continue and CPEC will move forward as we are hoping and anticipating by the end of July, the 14th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting will take place for CPEC,' Iqbal said, adding that by then the roadmap for the project's phase 2 will be approved. Ethnic Baloch separatist groups, most prominent among them the Baloch Liberation Army, have targeted Chinese interests in Balochistan in recent years. This has led to China expressing concerns over the safety of its nationals in Pakistan. Iqbal said Beijing has expressed satisfaction over the improving security situation in Pakistan. 'Chinese are very convinced that Pakistan is fully committed to improving the security situation in the country and in the coming months and years, we will have greater cooperation because Pakistan has worked very hard to counter these elements who have been involved in actions against Chinese,' the minister said.
