In Pakistan’s Balochistan, deadly attacks rip uneasy migrant-local equation
Al Jazeera
Nearly half of 70 people killed in this week’s attacks were workers from neighbouring Punjab. Why were they attacked?
Islamabad, Pakistan – For 15 years, pick-up truck driver Qadeer Aslam had been transporting goods across Pakistan. Most of his trips were to Balochistan, about 400km (250 miles) west of his village near Burewala city in southern Punjab province.
Over the years, Aslam, 32, was able to save enough money to buy his own truck, a Hyundai Shahzore, in which he hauled fruit, vegetables and other goods to cities in Balochistan, a mineral-rich province and Pakistan’s largest by area. It has also been home to a violent separatist movement for decades.
On Sunday night, Aslam was on way to the province when armed fighters from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of the main separatist groups, stopped his truck and killed him.
Twenty-two other men were also dragged from their vehicles that night, all singled out for being ethnic Punjabis, and shot dead on the highways.
Within 24 hours, at least 70 people were killed in six such attacks across Balochistan, including 35 civilians, 14 security personnel and 21 BLA fighters.
