By Staff Reporter
QUETTA: Gunmen intercepted a bus traveling from Quetta to Lahore in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Friday, abducting and shooting dead at least nine passengers in an attack provincial officials described as a terrorist act backed by Indian-sponsored groups.
The assault took place near Zhob, a town in northern Balochistan, where armed assailants halted the bus, removed passengers, and selectively executed nine individuals.
Assistant Commissioner Zhob, Naveed Alam, said the attackers opened fire on the abducted passengers after taking them away from the vehicle. The bodies were later transported to Rekhni hospital in the Barkhan district.
Shahid Rind, a spokesperson for the Balochistan provincial government, condemned the killings in stark terms. “The terrorists pulled passengers off the bus, identified them, and then mercilessly killed nine innocent Pakistanis,” he said.
He called the murder of defenceless civilians “a glaring example of the barbarity of the Fitna al-Hindustan,” a phrase officials use to denote alleged Indian-backed terrorist activities.
Security forces rushed to the scene following reports of the abduction, but the gunmen escaped under cover of darkness, Rind said. A search operation is now underway in the surrounding region to apprehend the perpetrators.
Friday’s attack was not an isolated incident. Rind said terrorists affiliated with Fitna al-Hindustan launched separate assaults earlier that day in the Mastung, Kalat, and Saradagai areas of Balochistan.
Security forces repelled the attacks in Mastung and Kalat, he noted, though the violence near Zhob succeeded in claiming lives. In a related development, reports emerged of additional passenger abductions near Loralai, prompting another search operation to secure their release, according to Rind.
The provincial government has established standard operating procedures (SOPs) for passenger bus safety, including a ban on overnight travel along the N-70 thoroughfare. The bus attacked near Zhob departed at dusk on the N-70 route, adhering to these guidelines, Rind said.
Still, the incident occurred, exposing potential vulnerabilities in the security framework. “The government is looking into what loopholes in the security arrangements allowed this mishap to take place so that such incidents are prevented from happening again,” he added.
Rind said a general terror threat had been issued prior to the attack, prompting heightened security in Kalat and Mastung and a suspension of passenger train services a day earlier. No specific warning, however, had indicated a threat to the Zhob area.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least populous province, has long grappled with insurgent violence, often targeting security forces and civilians alike. Friday’s killings fit a grim pattern of attacks against individuals from Punjab, the country’s most populous province.
In April 2024, nine passengers were forced off a bus near Noshki and killed, while two Punjab laborers were shot in Kech. Last May, seven barbers from Punjab were gunned down near Gwadar, and in August, 23 travelers were offloaded from trucks and buses and shot in Musakhail.
The Musakhail attack coincided with a broader wave of violence, as dozens of militants tied to the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist group, struck multiple targets across the province.
Earlier incidents this year include the deaths of five people in Gwadar’s Kalmat area in March and seven Punjab-bound passengers in Barkhan in February, followed by a blast in Harnai that killed 12 coal miners.
Rind framed Friday’s attack as part of a sustained campaign by “India’s proxies,” including Fitna al-Hindustan, to destabilize the region. In May, Pakistan officially designated all terrorist organizations in Balochistan as Fitna al-Hindustan, signaling an effort to spotlight India’s alleged role in the violence amid ongoing tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Pakistan’s military leadership signaled a firm stance against the escalating threat. Earlier Friday, Field Marshal Asim Munir accused India of “doubling down to further its nefarious agenda through its proxies of Fitna-al-Khawarij and Fitna-al-Hindustan.”
He vowed “decisive and holistic actions at all levels” against these groups, reflecting the army’s determination to curb the violence. The attack follows a slight uptick in militant activity in May, though heightened military tensions with India have not yet sparked a significant escalation from extremist factions.
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