QUETTA: Forces hunted separatist militants Tuesday who killed dozens when they pulled passengers off buses, blew up a bridge and stormed a hotel a day earlier.

Militants in Balochistan took control of a highway and shot dead 23 people, mostly labourers from neighbouring Punjab province, attacked the hotel and the railway bridge which connects Balochistan to the rest of Pakistan.

Security forces have been battling sectarian, ethnic and separatist violence for decades in impoverished Balochistan, but the coordinated attacks that took place in several districts throughout the province were one of the worst in the region’s history.

The sites hit were cordoned off Tuesday as the search for assailants went on. “But no arrests have been made so far, and no additional militants have been killed,” provincial government spokesman Shahid Rind said.

Monday’s death toll includes 34 civilians and 15 members of the security forces, while the military said troops killed 21 militants.