Pakistan combing for perpetrators after deadly separatist attacks

Pakistan forces were hunting on Sunday for the separatists behind a string of coordinated attacks in restive Balochistan province, with the government vowing to retaliate after more than 120 people were killed.

Around a dozen sites where the attacks took place — including the provincial capital Quetta — remained sealed off, with troops combing the area a day after militants stormed banks, jails and military installations, killing at least 18 civilians and 15 security personnel, according to the military’s count.

At least 92 militants were also killed, the military added, while an official told AFP that a deputy district commissioner had been abducted.

Mobile internet service across the province has been jammed for more than 24 hours, while road traffic is disrupted and train services suspended.

After being rocked by explosions, typically bustling Quetta lay quiet on Sunday, with major roads and businesses deserted, and people staying indoors out of fear.

Shattered metal fragments and mangled vehicles litter some roads.

“Anyone who leaves home has no certainty of returning safe and sound. There is constant fear over whether they will come back unharmed,” Hamdullah, a 39-year-old shopkeeper who goes by one name, told AFP in Quetta.

The Pakistan military said it was conducting “sanitisation operations” in the areas that had been targeted in Saturday’s attacks.

“The instigators, perpetrators, facilitators and abettors of these heinous and cowardly act… will be brought to justice,” it said in a statement Saturday night.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the province’s most active militant separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement sent to AFP.

The group said it had targeted military installations as well as police and civil administration officials in gun attacks and suicide bombings.

Saturday’s attacks came a day after the military said it killed 41 insurgents in two separate operations in the province.

Pakistan has been battling a Baloch separatist insurgency for decades, with frequent armed attacks on security forces, foreign nationals and non-local Pakistanis in the mineral-rich province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.

Pakistan’s poorest province despite an abundance of untapped natural resources, Balochistan lags behind the rest of the country in almost every index, including education, employment and economic development.

Baloch separatists have intensified attacks on Pakistanis from other provinces working in the region in recent years, as well as foreign energy firms that they believe are exploiting its riches.

The separatists attacked a train with 450 passengers on board last year, sparking a two-day siege during which dozens of people were killed.