More than 70 dead after militant attacks in Pakistan's Balochistan

QUETTA, Pakistan, Aug 26 (Reuters) - At least 73 people were killed in Pakistan's province of Balochistan when separatist militants attacked police stations, railway lines and highways and security forces launched retaliatory operations, officials said on Monday.

The assaults were the most widespread in years by ethnic militants fighting a decades-long insurgency to win secession of the resource-rich southwestern province, home to major China-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine.

"These attacks are a well thought-out plan to create anarchy in Pakistan," Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement.

Pakistan's military said 14 soldiers and police and 21 militants were killed in fighting after the largest of the attacks, which targeted buses and trucks on a major highway.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/twenty-three-people-killed-pakistan-militant-attack-interior-minister-says-2024-08-26/