New Delhi

A simultaneous spree of separatist attacks on police stations, railway lines, and vehicles on highways in Balochistan killed over 50 people. The Baloch Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for the attacks. 

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The largest attack took place in Balochistan's Musakhel's district, about 317 km from Quetta, when armed men offloaded passengers from trucks and buses and fired at them after checking their identities. 

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According to Assistant Commissioner, Musakhail Najeeb Kakar, armed men blocked the inter-provincial highway and offloaded passengers from buses. 

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The armed men also set ablaze 10 vehicles, the official said, according to Pakistan's Dawn newspaper.

Police and levies officials reached the spot and began shifting the bodies to the hospital, the official added.

Timed attack on multiple sites in Balochistan

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Militants in Balochistan have fought a decades-long ethnic insurgency to demand the secession of the resource-rich southwestern province, which is home to a number of major China-led projects, including a strategic port and a gold and copper mine.

A rail line between Pakistan and Iran and a railway bridge linking Quetta, the provincial capital, to the rest of the country were also hit with explosives in militant attacks, railways official Muhammad Kashif said.

Rail traffic with Quetta was suspended, he added.

Around the same time, militants also targeted police and security stations in the sprawling province, officials said, one of which killed at least 10 people.

The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) militant group took responsibility in a statement emailed to journalists that claimed many more attacks, including one on a major paramilitary base, though Pakistani authorities have yet to confirm these.

Police stations attacked

Six security personnel, three civilians, and one tribal elder were among the 10 people killed in clashes with armed militants who stormed a station of the Balochistan Levies in the central district of Kalat, police official Dostain Khan Dashti said.

Officials said police stations had also been attacked in the two southern coastal towns, but the toll had yet to be confirmed.

The office of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attacks in a statement, vowing that security forces would retaliate and bring those responsible to justice.

(With inputs from agencies)