A bus full of passengers with luggage on the roof passes by a damaged vehicle, a day after separatist militants carried out deadly attacks in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province’s Bolan district. A bus full of passengers with luggage on the roof passes by a damaged vehicle, a day after separatist militants carried out deadly attacks in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province’s Bolan district, August 27, 2024. Photo Credit: Reuters
At least five militants of a banned terror group were killed and three injured in ongoing intelligence-based operations in several districts of Balochistan. after last weekend’s terrorist attacks,
Security forces launched the operation after the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) – a separatist group – claimed responsibility for carrying out at least four terror attacks in the restive province, killing nearly 50 people, including 14 security forces.
Editorial | Coordinated attacks: On Pakistan and the Baloch conflict
At least 21 militants were also killed in the attacks, one of which had targeted 23 travellers from Punjab province who were shot dead after being identified from their national identity cards after they were offloaded from four trucks in Musakhail district.
“Security forces are conducting extensive intelligence-based operations (IBOs) to hunt down the perpetrators of these heinous acts,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on Friday.
“At night [of] “On August 29/30, security forces killed five terrorists in three different IBOs in Kech, Panjgur and Zhob districts while three terrorists were injured during heavy exchange of fire,” the ISPR said.
It said the clean-up operation will continue until all the perpetrators, facilitators and instigators of these dastardly acts are brought to justice.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif also visited Quetta for high-level meetings and vowed to crush militant organisations, while President Asif Ali Zardari said terrorism would be “completely wiped out” from the mineral-rich Balochistan province.
On August 19, separatist militants killed the deputy commissioner of Panjgur district.
The Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies said 789 terror attacks and counter-terrorism operations in 2023 resulted in 1,524 violence-related deaths and 1,463 injuries.
Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban government in Kabul to prevent Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan from using Afghan soil to launch attacks in Pakistan.
However, the Taliban administration has denied these allegations.