Twenty migrants have been killed in Pakistan's Balochistan province

The bodies of XNUMX Pakistani migrants believed to be trying to reach Europe via Iran were found bullet-riddled this week in the volatile Balochistan province of southwestern Pakistan, converging sources said.

Five bodies were found Saturday in the Ketch area, near the border with Iran, provincial government spokesman Anwar ul-Haq said. The victims had been killed two days earlier, he added.

Fifteen more bodies were found in the same area on Wednesday, also with multiple bullet wounds, Akbar Harifal, a Balochistan local government official, told AFP. According to the two officials, the XNUMX victims, originating from Punjab province, were on their way to Iran.

Their killings are believed to have been carried out by separatists, whose activities are intense in this very poor province of Pakistan, according to them. The Pakistani military says a separatist leader believed to be "involved" in the first massacre was killed on Friday 25 kilometers north of where the bodies were found.

The man was also charged with ambushes against army convoys and the killing of several civilians, the Pakistani military said in a statement. Baluch separatists often target workers or citizens from Punjab, who accuse them of exploiting their province, Pakistan's poorest despite its vast hydrocarbon and mineral deposits.

The province of Balochistan is the main route for migrants trying to reach Europe via Iran, many of whom are dying as a result of hardship or the bullets of armed groups. In addition to the separatists, Islamists are operating or trying to infiltrate the province. Balochistan is also experiencing repeated instances of violence motivated by religious or racial hatred. The killings of Khazars, members of a Shiite ethnic minority whose members are easily identified because of their Asian characteristics, are common in Quetta, the provincial capital.