39 killed in terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s Balochistan

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) — At least 39 people, including security personnel, were killed in multiple terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s southwest Balochistan province, officials said on Monday.
In Musa Khel district of the province, armed men blocked a highway connecting Punjab to Balochistan and offloaded passengers from several buses, later shot them dead after checking their identities, Assistant Commissioner of Musa Khel Najeeb Kakar told Xinhua.
The official added that the militants also torched 10 to 12 vehicles in the district.
In another incident, at least 10 people, including five security personnel, were killed when terrorists stormed a toll plaza, a hospital and a house of a tribal elder in Kalat district of Balochistan province, police sources confirmed to Xinhua.
Four security personnel and an assistant commissioner of Kalat were also injured during clashes in Kalat, said police.
Separately, insurgents blew up a railway track in the Bolan area of the province, leaving at least six people dead, Dost Muhammad Bugti, a senior police official in the area said.
The railway track was destroyed in the explosion, which resulted in the suspension of train service between Balochistan and eastern Punjab province.
After the attacks, security forces launched search operations across Balochistan and killed 12 terrorists, according to the official Radio Pakistan.
Taking notice of the terror incidents, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the attacks, directing an immediate probe to take the perpetrators of the attack to justice.
“The nation stood by the security forces in the war against terrorism … Terrorists’ nefarious designs to spoil the country’s peace would never succeed,” the prime minister said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. However, in a message on social media, the proscribed organization Balochistan Liberation Army claimed to have blocked several roads across the province. ■