What’s behind the bloodiest recent attacks in Pakistan's Baluchistan province?

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Multiple attacks in Pakistan’s restive southwest have killed at least 38 people, the highest death toll in a 24-hour period blamed on separatists in Baluchistan province in recent years.

Gunmen mowed down people after dragging them off buses, cars and trucks. Police and passersby were fatally shot in broad daylight in another district. A railway bridge connecting the province with the rest of the country was blown up. A police station was attacked. There have been other reports of shootings.

The assaults were more audacious and brutal than the ones usually perpetrated by militants, who normally target security personnel or installations.

Here’s a look at what is happening in Baluchistan:

Though Pakistan’s largest province, Baluchistan is its least populated, made up largely of high mountains. It’s also a hub for the country’s ethnic Baluch minority, whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government. That has fuelled a separatist insurgency demanding independence. Islamic militants also operate in the province.

The government says it has largely quelled the violence, but assaults persist with raids by security forces and counterattacks.

The main player is the outlawed Baluchistan Liberation Army, which Pakistan and the U.S. have designated as a terrorist organization. It opposes the Pakistani government and wants a sovereign state that includes territories in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. It targets security forces in Baluchistan and sometimes Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and economic hub in Sindh province next door.

The BLA frequently, but not always, claims attacks. It has been banned since 2006.

The group was emboldened by the Pakistani Taliban ending a cease-fire with the government in November 2022 and ordering their fighters to resume attacks on the military. Islamabad-based analyst Abdullah Khan said the BLA is operating in the province with the support of other groups.

Last December, the leader of another insurgent group said he had surrendered to authorities with some 70 of his followers. Sarfraz Bungulzai, from the Baluch National Army, declared his regret for his role in kidnapping civilians for ransom and killing unarmed people.

The volatile relationship between Iran and Pakistan compounds the insecurity and instability. They share a 900-kilometre (560-mile), largely lawless border where smugglers and fighters roam freely.

Insurgencies on either side of the Iran-Pakistan border have frustrated both countries. Their governments suspect each other of supporting — or at least tolerating — some of the groups operating on the other side of the border.

Massive Chinese-led infrastructure projects are also driving unrest, as separatists accuse the federal government of unfairly exploiting oil- and mineral-rich Baluchistan at the expense of locals.

Thousands of Chinese workers are in Pakistan, most of them involved in Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative that connects south and central Asia with the Chinese capital.

Separatists, usually from the BLA, launch small-scale assaults on security forces and installations, with the death toll in the single digits.

But the coordination and tactics of the past 24 hours reveal a greater level of ambition, defiance and sheer brutality. The BLA had warned people to stay away from highways ahead of the attacks — it doesn’t normally give notice.

Sunday night’s highway assault was reminiscent of one in April, when gunmen killed nine people after abducting them from a bus. The same attackers had earlier killed two people and wounded six in another car that they forced to stop. Both incidents were claimed by the BLA.

In May, gunmen fatally shot seven barbers, all from eastern Punjab province, apparently part of a drive to force outsiders to leave Baluchistan.

Analyst Khan said the BLA is getting better at mobilising fighters in different areas and that its operational capabilities have increased tremendously. Authorities estimate the BLA has around 3,000 fighters.

Islamabad-based security analyst Syed Muhammad Ali said the latest killings are an attempt to harm the province economically, because “the weakening of Baluchistan means the weakening of Pakistan.”

While insurgent attacks aim to discourage people from outside the region from travelling, trading, or working in the province, they also make life harder for the Balochis by discouraging investment, aid and disrupting the flow of goods and services, Ali said.

A decadeslong crackdown and heavy-handed militarization to combat militancy creates additional trauma for locals, who have deep grievances about enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

Thousands protested last month against police violence, an internet shutdown and highway closures. At least one person was reportedly killed.

Analyst Khan said the timing was an attempt to sabotage Pakistan’s effort to present the province as a secure place for international investment.

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Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Volunteers and relatives load the body of a passenger, who was killed by gunmen at a highway in Musakhail, into an ambulance after collecting it from a hospital, in Quetta, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)

Relatives take care of a passenger, wounded by gunmen at a highway in Musakhail, after receiving initial treatment at a hospital, in Quetta, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)

People look burnt vehicles, torched by gunmen after killing passengers, at a highway in Musakhail, a district in Baluchistan province in southwestern Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rahmat Khan)

People look at a burnt vehicle which was torched by gunmen after they killed passengers at a highway in Musakhail, a district in Baluchistan province in restive southwestern Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rahmat Khan)

BANGKOK (AP) — Germany sailed two warships through the Taiwan Strait on Friday in its first transit of the disputed waters in more than two decades, as Berlin seeks to increase its defense engagement in the Asia-Pacific region.

China claims the self-governing democratic island of Taiwan as its own, and views such transits as provocative actions.

To challenge China's claims, the United States and allies including Australia, Canada, Britain and France, have regularly conducted “freedom of navigation” operations there, sailing through the strait to emphasize that it is international waters.

In its last naval deployment to the region in 2021-22, Germany had sought to avoid confrontation with China and attempted a diplomatic balancing act, seeking a port call in China, which Beijing denied, and by not sailing through the Taiwan Strait.

The government was widely criticized for this approach, and on this deployment to the Indo-Pacific, leaders decided to sail through the strait en route from South Korea to the Philippines in a widely-telegraphed move.

“The signal is a very simple one, which we have always maintained and I have always maintained,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters in Berlin. “International waters are international waters.”

Taiwan's Defense Ministry confirmed in a post on X that the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and support ship Frankfurt am Main had transited through the strait from north to south, adding that throughout the sail "the situation remained normal."

China, which often reacts sharply to American warships transiting the strait, was somewhat muted in its response.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters that for Beijing, “the Taiwan issue is not an issue of freedom of navigation, but an issue related to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

She said that while China respects the navigation rights of all countries, “we firmly oppose provocations endangering China’s sovereignty and security in the name of freedom of navigation.”

The European Union three years ago embarked on a new strategy for the Asia-Pacific aimed at boosting economic, political and defense ties. Part of that has been focused on improving maritime security and ensuring safe passage through sea lanes.

It comes at a time when China is becoming increasingly assertive in pushing its maritime claims in the region, including on virtually the entire South China Sea and on Taiwan.

China maintains that Taiwan is part of its territory, and President Xi Jinping has not ruled out taking it by force.

China sends warplanes and warships near Taiwan on a near-daily basis in an attempt to intimidate its citizens and degrade the island’s defenses.

In response, Taiwan has extended the period of national military service to one year, building its own submarines and importing sophisticated new equipment from the U.S.

The vast majority of Taiwanese favor the current status of their island, which separated from mainland China amid civil war in 1949.

FILE - A Taiwan national flag flutters near the Taipei 101 building at the National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)