Pakistan says Baloch separatists, local Taliban group behind attacks killing over 50 in southwest

Update  Pakistan says Baloch separatists, local Taliban group behind attacks killing over 50 in southwest
1 / 2
People look burnt vehicles, torched by gunmen after killing passengers, at a highway in Musakhail, a district in Baluchistan province in southwestern Pakistan on Aug. 26, 2024. (AP)
Update  Pakistan says Baloch separatists, local Taliban group behind attacks killing over 50 in southwest
2 / 2
Pakistan security forces in Balochistan province are battling sectarian, ethnic and separatist violence. (AFP file photo)
Short Url
Updated 27 August 2024
Follow

Pakistan says Baloch separatists, local Taliban group behind attacks killing over 50 in southwest

 Pakistan says Baloch separatists, local Taliban group behind attacks killing over 50 in southwest
  • Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but poorest province, despite an abundance of untapped natural resources
  • The Baloch Liberation Army is the most active militant separatist group in the region

QUETTA/KARACHI: Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Monday blamed Baloch separatists and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for multiple militant attacks and other acts of violence in the southwestern Balochistan province in the last 24 hours in which over 50 people were killed, excluding insurgents.
Pakistan’s largest province of Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan and is home to major China-led projects such as a strategic port and a gold and copper mine, has been the site of a decades-long separatist insurgency by ethnic Baloch militants, who say they are fighting what they see as the unfair exploitation of the province’s mineral and gas wealth by the federation at the center. The state denies the allegations, saying it is working for the uplift of the impoverished province through various development schemes.
The eruption of violence at multiple districts of the province on Sunday night poses a major challenge for the weak coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, which is battling an economic crisis and political instability as well as a rise in militant violence by religiously motivated and separatist groups across the country. Balochistan is also currently in the grips of civil rights protests by young ethnic Baloch people, who are calling for an end to what they describe as a pattern of enforced disappearances and other human rights abuses by security forces, who deny the charge.
In the violence that began on Sunday evening, 23 passengers were taken off their vehicles in Musa Khel, a district in the northeast of Balochistan, and shot dead. In another attack, the Pakistan Army said it had killed 21 militants during a clearance operation in which 14 soldiers and police also died. Separately, 10 people, including five security forces personnel, were killed when militants stormed a paramilitary force station in Kalat, while militants also blew up a railway bridge in Bolan in Balochistan’s Kachhi district. Six as yet unidentified bullet-riddled bodies were also found near the bridge, with the circumstances of the killings unclear.
On Sunday, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent of several separatist groups operating in Balochistan, said it had attacked a security forces’ camp in Bela area of the Lasbela district, claiming to have killed 68 “enemy personnel.”
“The TTP and many foreign elements are involved in these attacks. We will unmask them all,” Interior Minister Naqvi told reporters, saying militants operating from safe havens in neighboring Afghanistan were launching attacks in Pakistan, a charge denied by Kabul.
“We know who planned this and who is behind them. They thought carefully and conducted the attacks in a single day,” he said. “The entire leadership has decided that we will respond to them with full force.”
WIDESPREAD ASSAULT
In the first of many attacks on Sunday evening, a senior police official said passengers were taken off vehicles in Musa Khel and at least 23 were shot dead after they were identified as hailing from the Punjab province. Militants also burnt at least 35 trucks, buses and other vehicles.
“Twenty-three people were killed after armed men took them off from vehicles and goods trucks near Rara Sham, an area in Musa Khel,” Ayoub Achakzai, senior superintendent of police in the district, told Arab News on Monday morning.
The army’s media wing said soldiers and other law enforcement “immediately responded and successfully thwarted the evil design of terrorists,” killing 21 militants during a clearance operation.
“However, during the conduct of operations, fourteen brave sons of soil including ten Security Forces soldiers and four personnel of law enforcement agencies, having fought gallantly, made the ultimate sacrifice and embraced shahadat [martyrdom],” the army said.
In a televised press conference, Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said that “people were taken off buses and killed in front of their families.”
No one has claimed responsibility for the Musa Khel killings yet but in the past, separatists in Balochistan have often killed workers from the country’s eastern Punjab province, who they see as outsiders exploiting the province. Most of such previous killings have been blamed on the outlawed BLA and other groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad.
In another attack, SSP Dostain Khan Dashti said ten people, including five from security forces, were killed when unidentified gunmen stormed a station of the Balochistan Paramilitary Levies Force in the central district of Kalat.
“The firing by armed men has left one policeman, four Levies personnel, and five citizens dead,” Dashti said.
Separately, Pakistan Railways suspended train services between Quetta and Sibi on Monday after a key railway bridge near the Dozan area of Bolan was blown up in wee hours of Monday. 
“Security forces have cordoned off the area and Pakistan Railways’ team has reached the site to assess the damages,” a Railways spokesman said.
“Quetta-Sibi highway is blocked for traffic after terrorists destroyed a railway bridge during early hours of Monday and the debris of the bridge fell on the highway,” Kachhi SSP Dost Muhammad Bugti told Arab News, without naming any group behind the assault.
Police in Bolan — a rugged, mountainous area of Kachhi district — said they had found six bullet-riddled bodies close to the destroyed bridge during the early hours of Monday. The circumstances of the killings were unclear and the bodies have yet to be identified.
ATTACK ON ARMY CAMP
On Sunday, the BLA said it had attacked an army camp in the Bela city of Balochistan’s Lasbela district, located around 515 kilometers from the provincial capital of Quetta.
A senior police officer in Bela confirmed the attack on the military camp.
“Security clearance operation is going on as we can still hear sounds of gunshots and explosions from the camp,” Bela police station in-charge Attaullah Jamoot told Arab News. 
The army did not comment on the attack on the Bela camp in its statement, but said militants had attempted to conduct “numerous heinous activities” in Balochistan on the night of Aug. 25-26.
“These cowardly acts of terrorism were aimed at disrupting the peaceful environment and development of Balochistan by targeting mainly the innocent civilians, especially in Musa Khel, Kalat and Labela Districts. Resultantly, numerous innocent civilians embraced shahadat,” the army said.
Video clips widely shared on WhatsApp and X showed long queues of vehicles lined up on various sections of the key Quetta-Karachi highway in the Kalat and Mastung districts of the province.
The BLA said it had “taken full control of all major highways across Balochistan, blocking them completely.”
“The situation is not good in Khad Kocha,” Abdul Shakoor, a paramilitary Levies soldier, told Arab News about an area in the Masung district, some 67 kilometers from Quetta. “There are reports that armed persons have blocked the highway, and they have blown up the Pakistan-Iran railway track near Khad Kocha.”
Shakoor said there was no confirmation as yet of any casualties.
The state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster said “terrorists have carried out cowardly attacks at several places,” without specifying where the assaults took place.
“Security forces and law enforcement agencies responded effectively to these attacks, twelve terrorists have so far been killed and many others are injured,” the broadcaster said. “The operation will continue until the terrorists are eliminated.”
Balochistan CM Bugti said more intelligence-based operations would be launched to weed out militants, hinting at curtailing mobile data services to stop militant coordination.
“They launch attacks, film it and then share it on social media for propaganda,” he said.
Meanwhile, General Li Qiaoming, commander of China’s People’s Liberation Army Ground Forces, and Pakistan’s army chief General Asim Munir met on Monday, though a Pakistani military statement released after the meeting made no mention of the attacks.
The latest attacks coincide with the 18th anniversary of the killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, a prominent Baloch politician and tribal chief who was killed in a military operation on Aug. 26, 2006, sparking deadly protests and inflaming the insurgency in Balochistan.
The impoverished province has seen an uptick in violence in the last few weeks, with separatist groups intensifying attacks ahead of and during Independence Day celebrations earlier this month, in which at least four people were killed.


Rulings coming fast and furious in lawsuits over Trump’s policies on immigration, elections and DEI

Rulings coming fast and furious in lawsuits over Trump’s policies on immigration, elections and DEI
Updated 6 sec ago
Follow

Rulings coming fast and furious in lawsuits over Trump’s policies on immigration, elections and DEI

Rulings coming fast and furious in lawsuits over Trump’s policies on immigration, elections and DEI
  • The legal disputes playing out across the country are far from over though as administration attorneys are pushing back

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration was handed a rapid-fire series of court losses Wednesday night and Thursday in lawsuits filed over its policies on immigration, elections and its crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools.
But the legal disputes playing out across the country are far from over, and administration attorneys pushed back, asking the federal appellate courts and the US Supreme Court to overturn some of the unfavorable decisions.
Here’s a look at the latest developments in some of the more than 170 lawsuits filed over President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
DEI
Judges blocked the administration from enforcing its diversity, equity and inclusion crackdown in education in at least two lawsuits Thursday. The decisions came ahead of a Friday deadline that the Education Department set for states to sign a form certifying they would not use “illegal DEI practices.”
A federal judge in New Hampshire blocked a series of directives from the Education Department, including a memo ordering an end to any practice that differentiates people based on their race, and another asking for assurances that schools don’t use DEI practices deemed discriminatory.
Judges in Maryland and Washington, D.C., also halted portions of the department’s anti-DEI efforts.
Elections
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from immediately enacting certain changes to how federal elections are run, including adding a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form. Still, the judge allowed other parts of Trump’s sweeping executive order on US elections — including a directive to tighten mail ballot deadlines — to go forward for now.
US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington sided with voting rights groups and Democrats, saying that the Constitution gives the power to regulate federal elections to states and Congress — not the president. She noted federal lawmakers are currently working on their own legislation to require proof of citizenship to vote.
Immigration
The Trump administration is appealing a judge’s order barring it from deporting people from Colorado under a rarely used 1798 law.
Attorneys for the administration filed the appeal in the 10th US Circuit Court, arguing that Denver-based US District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney lacks jurisdiction and that it is legally sound to invoke the Alien Enemies Act against the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
In another case out of Maryland, the Trump administration was ordered to facilitate the return of a man who was deported to El Salvador last month despite having a pending asylum application. US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland said the government violated a 2019 settlement agreement when it deported the 20-year-old man, a Venezuelan native identified only as Cristian in court papers. Gallagher cited another federal judge’s order for the government to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland and was accidentally deported the same day as Cristian.
In a Texas lawsuit, a court document from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official was unsealed, revealing that migrants subject to removal under the Alien Enemies Act are only getting about 12 hours to decide if they want to contest their planned deportation to a prison in El Salvador. Earlier this week, government attorneys in a different Alien Enemies Act lawsuit told a judge in Colorado that migrants were being given 24 hours to make the decision.
The American Civil Liberties Union says the time period violates a Supreme Court order that allowed the Trump administration to continue deportations but required the government give detainees a “reasonable time” to argue to a judge that they should not be removed.
Yet another federal judge based in San Francisco barred the Trump administration from denying federal funds to “sanctuary” cities that limit immigration cooperation.
US Judge William Orrick said the temporary ban is appropriate because the executive orders are unconstitutional, just like they were in 2017 when Trump announced a similar order. Orrick said the administration can’t freeze any federal funds in San Francisco and more than a dozen other municipalities until the lawsuit brought by those cities is resolved.
Transgender rights
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow enforcement of a ban on transgender people in the military, while lawsuits over the ban move forward in court. The high court filing follows a brief order from a federal appeals court that kept in place a court order blocking the policy nationwide.
Trump signed an executive order a week into his term that claims the sexual identity of transgender service members “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is harmful to military readiness. In response, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy that presumptively disqualifies transgender people from military service.
But in March, US District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma, Washington, ruled for several long-serving transgender military members who say the ban is insulting and discrimin


More than 1,800 migrants expelled from Algeria into Niger, rights group says

More than 1,800 migrants expelled from Algeria into Niger, rights group says
Updated 29 min 41 sec ago
Follow

More than 1,800 migrants expelled from Algeria into Niger, rights group says

More than 1,800 migrants expelled from Algeria into Niger, rights group says
  • The UK government is struggling to stop undocumented migrants embarking on dangerous boat journeys across the Channel from France
  • Ukrainian and Afghan migrants face uncertainty under new policies

ALGIERS: Algerian authorities rounded up more than 1,800 migrants and left them at the Nigerien border in a record expulsion earlier this month, a Niger-based migrant rights group said Thursday.
Alarmphone Sahara, which monitors migration across the region, said the migrants were bused to a remote desert area known as “Point Zero” after being apprehended in Algerian cities.
Abdou Aziz Chehou, the group’s national coordinator, told The Associated Press on Thursday that 1,845 migrants without legal status in Algeria had been counted, arriving in Niger’s border town of Assamaka after the April 19 mass expulsion.
That pushed the total number of expelled migrants arriving in Assamaka this month beyond 4,000, he said.
The figure does not include those who may attempt to return north into Algeria, Chehou added.
The mass deportations come amid rising tensions between Algeria and its southern neighbors, all now led by military juntas that ousted elected governments previously aligned with Algiers. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger withdrew their ambassadors from Algeria earlier this month over border security disputes.
For migrants fleeing poverty, conflict or climate change, Algeria serves as a transit point en route to Europe. Many cross vast stretches of the Sahara en route before attempting dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean. But reinforced maritime patrols have stranded increasing numbers in transit countries with checkered human rights records and limited humanitarian aid.
In 2024, Alarmphone Sahara recorded more than 30,000 migrants expelled from Algeria. Similar pushbacks have also been reported in neighboring Morocco, Tunisia and Libya.
Neither Algerian nor Nigerien officials have commented on the latest expulsions, which are rarely reported in Algerian press. In the past, Nigerien authorities have said such actions appear to violate a 2014 agreement that allows only Nigerien nationals to be deported across the border.


US Congress Republicans seek $27 billion for Golden Dome in Trump tax bill

US Congress Republicans seek $27 billion for Golden Dome in Trump tax bill
Updated 48 min 20 sec ago
Follow

US Congress Republicans seek $27 billion for Golden Dome in Trump tax bill

US Congress Republicans seek $27 billion for Golden Dome in Trump tax bill
  • Measure adds $150bn to the already approved $886bn national security budget for 2025, with $27bn going to Golden Dome missile defense shield
  • Elon Musk’s SpaceX and two partners are frontrunners to win a crucial part that would track incoming missiles as part of the Golden Dome program

WASHINGTON: Republicans in the US Congress plan to introduce a sweeping $150 billion defense package that will give an initial $27 billion boost to President Donald Trump’s controversial Golden Dome missile defense shield and bolstering shipbuilding, according to a document and a congressional aide.
The measure would supercharge the national defense budget with new money to build 14 warships and lift homeland security spending. This will add $150 billion to the already approved $886 billion national security budget for 2025. It will be part of Trump’s sweeping tax cuts bill, which will cut taxes by about $5 trillion and add approximately $5.7 trillion to the federal government’s debt over the next decade.
The Republican leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees hammered out the legislation that will be unveiled as soon as Friday evening, Republican Senator Roger Wicker told Reuters in an interview. He is chairman of the Senate committee.
The measure, details of which have not been previously reported, includes a $27 billion investment in Golden Dome to build more missile interceptors and purchase Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) antiballistic missile batteries, according to the congressional aide. THAAD is made by Lockheed Martin.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX and two partners have emerged as frontrunners to win a crucial part that would track incoming missiles as part of the Golden Dome program, Reuters reported last week.
The bill’s focus on strengthening the country’s military presence, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, is a key component of a broader strategy to prevent conflict.
“Strength, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, will make China less eager to break the status quo, which has led to a vast global prosperity among people who’ve never had it before. This is part of a plan to prevent war.”
He said it was designed to address the military’s most pressing needs, with a focus on supercharging key areas such as naval shipbuilding, missile defense, and space sensing.
The bill includes a range of provisions aimed at enhancing the country’s military capabilities. The largest item is $29 billion for the procurement of 14 new ships, and a “historic” investment in unmanned ships, according to the document seen by Reuters.
The legislation also provides significant funding for the development of innovative technologies, including a $5 billion investment in autonomous systems, a substantial increase from the $500 million allocated by the Biden administration.
Additionally, the package includes $20 billion in funding for the production of new munitions, the expansion of the country’s supplier base, and the replenishment of critical minerals stockpiles.
Notably, much of the funding allocated in this package will not expire at the end of the fiscal year, providing a significant boost to the country’s defense capabilities.
The measure will move forward through the process of reconciliation, a parliamentary procedure that allows Congress to pass budget-related bills with a simple majority vote, bypassing the usual 60-vote threshold required for most legislation.


A New York man is charged with hiding his role in the Rwanda genocide to get US citizenship

A New York man is charged with hiding his role in the Rwanda genocide to get US citizenship
Updated 25 April 2025
Follow

A New York man is charged with hiding his role in the Rwanda genocide to get US citizenship

A New York man is charged with hiding his role in the Rwanda genocide to get US citizenship
  • Citing witnesses, prosecutors said Faustin Nsabumukunzi set up roadblocks during the genocide to detain and kill Tutsis and participated in killings
  • Nsabumukunzi was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted on genocide charges in absentia by a Rwandan court

CENTRAL ISLIP, New York: A New York man told federal agents, “I know I’m finished,” when he was arrested Thursday on charges that he concealed his leadership role in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 in his applications for a green card and US citizenship, prosecutors said.
Faustin Nsabumukunzi, 65, was charged with hiding from US authorities his role as a local leader in Rwanda when the genocide began in 1994. An estimated 800,000 Tutsis were killed during the three-month-long genocide. The indictment of the Bridgehampton man was unsealed in Central Islip on Long Island.
At an initial court appearance, Nsabumukunzi pleaded not guilty to visa fraud and attempted naturalization fraud and was released on $250,000 bail. The bail package requires home detention and GPS monitoring, but he will be allowed to continue working as a gardener.
Evan Sugar, a lawyer for Nsabumukunzi, described his client in an email as “a law-abiding beekeeper and gardener who has lived on Long Island for more than two decades.”
He said Nsabumukunzi was “a victim of the Rwandan genocide who lost scores of family members and friends to the violence.”
Sugar said Nsabumukunzi was rightfully granted refugee status and lawful permanent residence and planned to “fight these 30-year-old allegations” while maintaining his innocence.
In a detention memo seeking detention, prosecutors said interviews of witnesses who knew him in Rwanda indicated that Nsabumukunzi falsely assured Tutsis at public meetings when the genocide began that they would be protected.
But, they said, he then, in private meetings, urged Hutus to begin killing Tutsis, the memo says.
Prosecutors said witnesses told them that Nsabumukunzi not only participated in the killing of Tutsis, including in his administrative offices, but he also encouraged Hutu men to rape Tutsi women as a genocidal tool.
Prosecutors said that when the charges were described to Nsabumukunzi as he was arrested Thursday morning, he responded: “I know I’m finished.”
According to the indictment, Nsabumukunzi was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted on genocide charges in absentia by a Rwandan court. He’d been accused of using his leadership position to oversee the killings of Tutsis in his local area.
He allegedly set up roadblocks during the genocide to detain and kill Tutsis and participated in killings, the indictment says.
In 2003, Nsabumukunzi applied to settle in the US as a refugee and received a green card in 2007 before applying for citizenship in 2009 and 2015, authorities said.
In his applications, they added, he falsely asserted that he was not involved in the genocide.
Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a release that Nsabumukunzi participated in “heinous acts of violence abroad and then lied his way into a green card and tried to obtain US citizenship.”
“For over two decades, he got away with those lies and lived in the United States with an undeserved clean slate, a luxury that his victims will never have,” said US Attorney John J. Durham in Brooklyn.


‘Trump 2028’ merch for sale on US president’s store

‘Trump 2028’ merch for sale on US president’s store
Updated 25 April 2025
Follow

‘Trump 2028’ merch for sale on US president’s store

‘Trump 2028’ merch for sale on US president’s store

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s online store is selling merchandise emblazoned with “Trump 2028,” the year of the next US presidential election, in which the Republican is constitutionally banned from running.
The 78-year-old, who has seen his approval rating sink to new lows in recent opinion polls, has not ruled out serving a third term — even though it would require amending the Constitution.
Most political experts, including his own Attorney General, say that would be tough to pull off.
Yet, a social media account linked to Trump shared a photo Thursday of his son Eric sporting one of the new red caps, which is priced at $50.
“Make a statement with this Made in America Trump 2028 hat,” a product description on the Trump Store website says.
The shop is also selling T-shirts in navy and red, priced at $36, which read “Trump 2028 (Rewrite the Rules),” with matching beer can coolers for $18.
Opinion polls have reflected American concerns over his handling of key issues during the first 100 days of his second term, including living costs and chaotic tariff policies.
The 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution states that “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
Trump, who also served as president from 2017 to 2021, has insisted he is “not joking” about a third term, saying last month there are “methods” that would allow it to happen.
Any serious effort to amend the founding document would send the United States into uncharted territory.
Changing the US Constitution to allow a third presidential term would require a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
An amendment would also need ratification by at least 38 of the 50 US state legislatures, another slim possibility.
Trump has amassed an impressive range of branded products to promote his political career alongside his real estate empire.
They include Mother’s Day-inspired gifts such as pink pajamas and pickleball paddles with Trump logos.
Also on sale are earrings and necklaces styled with the numbers 45 and 47 to represent Trump’s two presidencies.
On Wednesday, Trump also offered an invitation to a private dinner to the top 220 investors in his lucrative cryptocurrency, dubbed $TRUMP, the New York Times reported.
In the past, the billionaire has flogged everything from steaks to “Trump University” courses to stock in his own media company, best known for the platform Truth Social.
He has also released the “God Bless the USA Bible,” priced at $59.99, in a collaboration with American country singer Lee Greenwood.