Separatists launched “coordinated” attacks across Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Saturday, killing at least 15 security personnel and 18 civilians, the military said — the latest violence in the insurgency-hit southwestern region.
Officials said 92 militants, including “three suicide bombers,” were also killed.
Pakistan has been battling a separatist insurgency in Balochistan for decades, with frequent attacks on security forces, foreign nationals and non-locals in the mineral-rich province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
Photo: AF
The military’s media wing said in a statement that attacks had taken place in multiple locations including the provincial capital, Quetta, and Gwadar.
“Eighteen innocent civilians” and 15 security personnel were killed, the military’s media wing, ISPR, said in a statement, putting the death toll among the militants at 92.
The circumstances surrounding the deaths of the civilians were not immediately clear. Baloch separatists have previously targeted civilians believed to have collaborated with state agencies.
A senior military official in Islamabad said the attacks were “coordinated, but poorly executed,” adding that they had “failed due to poor planning and rapid collapse under effective security response.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised security forces for “foiling” the attacks.
“We will continue the war against terrorism until its complete eradication,” he said in a statement, in which he accused India of backing the separatists.
Police officials in four districts earlier told reporters that the attacks were not yet completely under control.
In Quetta, Balochistan’s provincial capital, a reporter heard several explosions as heavy security was deployed across the city, with major roads deserted and businesses shut.
“Since morning, there have been explosions one after another,” Abdul Wali, 38, told reporters as he struggled to find blood for his hospitalized mother. “The police point guns at us and say ‘go back,’ otherwise they beat us. What should we do?”
A senior official in Quetta said that militants had abducted a deputy district commissioner.
A senior government official in another district said militants had “freed at least 30 inmates from a district jail, seizing firearms and ammunition. They also attacked a police station and took ammunition with them.”
Mobile phone services have been jammed and traffic disrupted in the affected districts, while train services have been suspended across the province.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most active militant separatist group in the province, claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement.
The group said it had targeted military installations and police and civil administration officials in gun attacks and suicide bombings.
It said major highways were blocked to disrupt military operations.
Several women were involved in the attacks, according to statements and videos released by the BLA.
Saturday’s attacks came a day after the military said it had killed 41 insurgents in two separate operations in the province.
“Over the past 12 months, security forces in Balochistan have sent more than 700 terrorists to hell, with around 70 terrorists eliminated in just the last two days alone,” Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said. “These attacks cannot weaken our resolve against terrorism.”
Balochistan is Pakistan’s poorest province, despite an abundance of untapped natural resources, and lags behind the rest of the country in education, employment and economic development.
Baloch separatists have intensified attacks on Pakistanis from other provinces working in the region in recent years, as well as foreign energy firms that they believe are exploiting its riches.
The separatists attacked a train with 450 passengers on board last year, sparking a two-day siege during which dozens of people were killed.
In August 2024, militants blew up bridges, stormed hotels and targeted security installations in assaults across the province that killed dozens.
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