Over 80 Pakistani militants, police personnel including people from intelligence agencies, and counter-terrorism units were killed in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province on Saturday after separatist militants carried out attacks in the area.
The militants said that the security forces responded with promptness, launching clearance operations that resulted in the killing of 92 militants, including three suicide bombers. According to the officials the plans were coordinated.
The violence spread across several districts, including Quetta, Gwadar, Mastung, Nushki, Dalbandin, Panjgur, Tump and Pasni, disrupting normal life. Roads were blocked, mobile networks were jammed, and train services across the province were suspended as security operations continued, the report stated.
Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) in a statement claimed that its fighters carried out a series of coordinated attacks across multiple districts of Balochistan, describing the operation as “Operation Herof Phase II."
The group alleged that the attacks took place over a ten-hour period and targeted security, military, and administrative installations in numerous towns and cities across the province. Several videos on social media verified these claims.
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View AllOfficials said militants also stormed a district jail, freeing at least 30 inmates and seizing weapons and ammunition. In another district, attackers abducted a senior civil administrator.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised security forces for thwarting the attacks and said Pakistan would continue its fight against terrorism. The military accused militants of being supported from outside the country, a charge that has been denied by India.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but poorest province, has faced a decades-long separatist insurgency, with repeated attacks on security forces, civilians and development projects in the resource-rich region.
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