On August 26, 2024, an incident took place in Balochistan’s Musakhel district where armed militants carried out a deadly attack that left at least 24 people dead. The attackers is believed to be members of the Baloch Liberation Army specifically targeted ethnic Punjabis and other non-Baloch individuals.
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The attack took place early Monday morning in the Rarasham area of Musakhail district, a region within Balochistan, Pakistan.
The armed men blocked the inter-provincial highway connecting Punjab with Balochistan stopping multiple vehicles including buses, trucks and vans.
After halting the vehicles, the assailants systematically offloaded the passengers. The gunmen then checked their identities targeting those from Punjab before executing them. The dead reportedly included three victims from Balochistan and the remaining from Punjab.
A total of 23 people were killed on the spot. Additionally the attackers set fire to at least 10 vehicles before fleeing the scene. Five more individuals sustained injuries in the attack.
Gunmen set up roadblocks on the inter-provincial highway in Musakhel district intercepting buses, trucks and vans traveling between Punjab and Balochistan.
The armed men forcibly offloaded passengers scrutinized their identification cards and singled out individuals based on their ethnicity.
Once identified, the attackers brutally shot the passengers resulting in the deaths of at least 24 people including two paramilitary soldiers.
The militants also set fire to approximately 10 to 12 vehicles before fleeing into the mountainous terrain surrounding the highway.
The majority of the victims were ethnic Punjabis hailing from Punjab province with a few individuals from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also among the dead.
The attackers’ methodical approach in checking IDs and selecting victims based on their ethnicity underlines the targeted nature of the massacre.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a militant separatist group operating in Balochistan claimed responsibility for the attack.
In their statement the BLA claimed that the victims were military servicemen in civilian clothes, though this assertion has been disputed by Pakistani authorities.
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Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti labeled the massacre as a terrorist act and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed their sorrow over the loss of life condemning the attackers as enemies of the nation.
Balochistan has long been a hotbed of ethnic, sectarian and separatist violence. The province remains underdeveloped leading to discontent among its inhabitants.
Baloch separatists including the BLA have intensified their attacks in recent years targeting Punjabis, Sindhis and foreign workers whom they accuse of exploiting the region’s resources without benefiting the local population.
Previous incidents include the killing of six laborers from Punjab in Turbat, Kech district, in October 2023 and the massacre of 20 construction workers near Turbat in 2015.
In April 2024, a similar attack occurred near Noshki, where nine passengers were offloaded from a bus and executed after their IDs were checked.
According to the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), Pakistan experienced 380 fatalities and 220 injuries related to violence in the second quarter of 2024 with Balochistan accounting for a huge portion of these casualties.
On October 2023, Six laborers from Punjab were executed in Turbat, Kech district with their killings reportedly motivated by ethnic targeting.
In 2019, fourteen people were killed in Ormara near Gwadar after being offloaded from a bus and identified through their national ID cards.
In 2015, an attack on a laborers’ camp near Turbat resulted in the death of 20 workers from Sindh and Punjab.
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