At least 51 people – including 12 attackers – have been killed in southwest Pakistan after separatist militants targeted police stations, railway lines and motorways.

Vehicles, including buses and delivery trucks, were targeted on a major road in Musakhail, a district in Balochistan, killing at least 23 people, officials said, in the worst of the attacks.

Passengers were marched off vehicles and shot after attackers checked their identity cards, Ayub Achakzai, a senior police superintendent, told the Reuters news agency.

The attackers then set 35 vehicles on fire before fleeing the scene.

In a separate attack, gunmen killed at least 10 people, including six security personnel and four civilians after storming a police station, officials said.

Police said a further six bodies were found after a railway bridge linking Quetta – the provincial capital – to the rest of the country and a railway line between Pakistan and Iran were hit with explosives during the attacks, railway official Muhammad Kashif said.

The number of dead includes those killed and the 12 alleged attackers who were killed by security forces, home secretary Mohsin Naqvi, said.

He said: “These attacks are a well thought out plan to create anarchy in Pakistan.”

Meanwhile, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari called the attack in Musakhail “barbaric” and vowed that those who were behind it would not escape justice.

The militant group the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) took responsibility for the attacks and claimed to have carried out many more in a statement emailed to journalists.

Pakistani authorities have yet to confirm any other attacks, including one allegedly on a paramilitary base.

The separatists are demanding independence for their region from the central government in Islamabad. Although Pakistani authorities claim they have quelled the revolt, violence in Balochistan has persisted.

The Balochistan Liberation Army or BLA is a group which Pakistan and the US have designated as a terrorist organisation.

Authorities estimate the BLA has around 3,000 fighters.

The group opposes the Pakistani government and wants a sovereign state that includes territories in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.

This has led to the BLA targeting security forces in Balochistan and sometimes Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.

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

Sunday night’s motorway attack was reminiscent of one in April, when gunmen killed nine people after abducting them from a bus.

A month later, gunmen fatally shot seven barbers who were all from eastern Punjab province, allegedly as part of a drive to force outsiders to leave Balochistan.

The group typically targets security forces, but the most recent attacks have involved civilians.

The BLA also warned people to stay away from highways ahead of the attacks, when it doesn’t normally give notice.

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Balochistan, which borders both Iran and Afghanistan, is Pakistan’s largest province by size, but the least populated and remains largely underdeveloped, with high levels of poverty.

Separatists often ask people for their identity cards, and then abduct or kill those who are from outside the province.

Many recent victims have come from the neighbouring Punjab province.

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