Separatist group the Balochistan Liberation Army says its fighters targeted military personnel travelling in civilian clothes, but Pakistan officials say the people killed were innocent civilians.
Gunmen in south-west Pakistan have killed 23 people in what the nation's president has called a "barbaric attack".
The killings occurred overnight in Musakhail, a district in Balochistan province, senior police official Ayub Achakzai said.In a separate attack early on Monday, gunmen killed at least nine people, including four police officers and five passers-by, in Qalat district in Baluchistan, authorities said.Insurgents blew up a railway track in Bolan, a district in the province, disrupting railroad traffic.
In separate statements, President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi called the attack in Musakhail "barbaric" and vowed that those who were behind it would not escape justice.The attack in Musakhail came hours after the outlawed Baluch Liberation Army separatist group warned people to stay away from highways as it launched attacks on security forces in various parts of the province.
He told The Associated Press that such attacks were designed to economically weaken Balochistan, noting that "the weakening of Baluchistan means the weakening of Pakistan".Separatists in Balochistan have often killed workers and others from the country's eastern Punjab region as part of a campaign to force them to leave the province, which for years has experienced a low-level insurgency.
Pakistan Insurgents Sovereignty Militant Death Tragedy Balochistan
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