Islamabad, Feb 2 (EFE).- At least 30 people, including 24 militants and two civilians, were killed in a prolonged three-day military operation in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, the army said on Friday, just days before the general elections scheduled for Feb. 8.
The military operation followed three coordinated rebel attacks, including one on a high-security prison, on Monday and Tuesday in Mach and Kolpur towns of the province, grappling with a deadly separatist insurgency for decades.
Security forces thwarted heavily armed militant attacks in Mach, approximately 70 km from the provincial capital, Quetta. Simultaneously, insurgents targeted a hotel and six shops in the Kolpur area, setting them ablaze before being forced to retreat.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, said security forces had “hunted down” a group of attackers during subsequent sanitization and clearance operations.
“During the firefights, sanitization, and clearance operations, in last three days, 24 terrorists (were killed),” the statement said. “Four brave members of law enforcement agencies, having fought gallantly, (were killed) along with two innocent civilians.”
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the Mach and Kolpur attacks, asserting that its fighters had killed 78 members of the security forces.
Balochistan has been a hotspot for insurgency, with rebels advocating for a separate Baloch homeland and alleging unfair resource exploitation in the mineral-rich region.
The province shares borders with Afghanistan to the north and Iran to the west, boasting a long coastline along the Arabian Sea and hosting Pakistan’s largest natural gas field.
The Baloch Liberation Army usually claims attacks on security forces and remains one of the prominent separatist groups in the region.
The surge in insurgent attacks in Pakistan since the Taliban’s ascent to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 has added to the complexity of the security situation in the region ahead of the general elections in the crisis-ridden nation. EFE
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