UPDATE 3 - 74 killed in multiple terrorist attacks in Pakistan

UPDATES WITH DETAILS ABOUT MORE CASUALTIES, CHANGES HEADER, LEDE, NO CHANGE IN DECK

BY Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - At least 74 people, including 21 terrorists and 14 security personnel, were killed in multiple clashes and attacks that lasted several hours in southwest and northwest Pakistan, officials and local media reported on Monday.

Terrorists carried out coordinated attacks on army in Musakhel, Qalat, and Lasbela districts, in which 21 militants and 10 paramilitary troops were killed, the army said in a statement.

Another four personnel of the law enforcing agencies were also killed in the clashes, it added.

"Sanitization operations are being conducted and the instigators, perpetrators, facilitators and abettors of these heinous and cowardly acts, targeting innocent civilians, will be brought to justice," the statement added.

Suspected militants killed 23 passengers in southwestern Balochistan province on Monday morning after forcing them to disembark from several vehicles, the latest in a string of heinous terrorist incidents in the province.

The incident occurred near the Musakhel district, where heavily armed militants blocked a key road, stopped several vehicles, and offloaded passengers before spraying them with bullets.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti confirmed the incident, saying the terrorists targeted "innocent" people, vowing that they and their "facilitators" will be brought to justice.

According to police, the attackers set at least 10 vehicles on fire before fleeing.

Local broadcaster Geo News aired footage of several burnt vehicles lining the road.

Shahid Rind, a Balochistan government spokeswoman, told reporters that the terrorists searched buses and trucks and checked the passengers' identities before killing them. The deceased people are said to be from the northeastern Punjab province.

Meanwhile, another five people were killed in a night-long clash between militants and police on the National Highway in Qalat district.

Separately, local police found four bullet-riddled bodies in the mountains of Bolan district.

Armed assailants also stormed and took control of a police station in the province's Mastung district for several hours.

They set on fire the record and several vehicles that were parked inside the police station.

The police said they regained control of the police station, forcing the attackers to flee.

However, the body of an unknown man has been found outside the police station.

Meanwhile, a bomb blast in the Bolan district destroyed a key railway bridge, killing two people and halting rail traffic between Balochistan and other provinces.

Balochistan Liberation Army, an outlawed separatist group, in a statement to local media, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The group has long targeted security forces and non-Baloch residents of the province.

In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, at least four people were killed and several injured in a remote-controlled bomb blast in Rizmak town of North Waziristan tribal district, which borders Afghanistan.

Pakistan has seen a surge in terror attacks in recent years, particularly in the provinces of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Balochistan.

Mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan's largest but poorest province. Security forces have long faced a low-intensity rebellion from Baloch separatists, who claim the province has been denied major developments.

The province is also a key route for the $64 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which aims to connect China's strategically important northwestern Xinxiang province with Balochistan's Gwadar port via a network of roads, railways, and pipelines for cargo, oil, and gas transportation.