QUETTA, Pakistan, Feb 20, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A separatist group in Pakistan's
volatile southwest claimed responsibility on Thursday for an attack which
officials said saw seven bus passengers lined up and shot dead.

Security forces have for decades battled ethnic and separatist violence in
impoverished but mineral-rich Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and
Iran.

Attacks have risen sharply in recent years, especially against labourers from
Punjab, the country's most populous and prosperous province and a major
recruitment base for the military.

The separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) group claimed the late Tuesday
attack in a statement, saying they had targeted "the Pakistani army and its
intelligence agencies".

"BLA accepts responsibility for this operation and issues a warning to all
agents of the enemy army," a statement said.

However, local senior government official Saadat Hussain told AFP on
Wednesday that seven labourers from Punjab had been executed after the tyres
on their bus were burst and they were ordered off the vehicle.

Groups such as the BLA are waging an insurgency calling for autonomy for
Balochistan -- the largest but most sparsely populated province of Pakistan.

Baloch separatists claim the region is being exploited by outsiders, with
wealth from its natural resources syphoned off with little benefit to the
local population.

At least 68 people have been killed in attacks in Pakistan this year,
according to an AFP tally -- the majority security forces targeted by anti-
state militants.

Last year was the deadliest in a decade for Pakistan, with a surge in attacks
that killed more than 1,600 people, according to Islamabad-based analysis
group the Center for Research and Security Studies.

Most militant violence takes place in Pakistan's western regions bordering
Afghanistan and Iran.