A bus with passengers sitting on the roof with belongings, drives past a damaged vehicle, a day after separatist militants conducted deadly attacks, in Bolan district of Pakistan’s restive province of Balochistan, Pakistan on August 27, 2024
| Photo Credit: Reuters
At least five terrorists of a banned militant group were killed and three were injured in ongoing intelligence-based operations in multiple districts in Balochistan following a string of terror attacks last weekend.
The security forces launched the operations after the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) — a separatist outfit — claimed responsibility for carrying out at least four terror attacks across the restive province, killing about 50 persons, including 14 security forces.
Editorial | Coordinated attacks: On Pakistan and the Baloch conflict
At least 21 militants were also gunned down in the attacks with one of them targeting 23 passengers belonging to the Punjab province who were offloaded from four trucks and gunned down in Musakhail district after being identified by their national ID cards.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on Friday: “The security forces are conducting extensive intelligence-based operations (IBOs) to hunt down the perpetrators of these heinous acts.
“On the night [of] 29/30 August, in three separate IBOs in Kech, Panjgur, and Zhob district, five terrorists were sent to hell by the security forces, while three terrorists got injured during the intense fire exchange,” the ISPR said.
It added that the sanitisation operations would “continue until all perpetrators, facilitators, and abetters of these atrocious acts are brought to justice”.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also visited Quetta for high-level meetings and vowed to crush the terror outfits while President Asif Ali Zardari said there would be a “complete elimination” of terrorism from the mineral-rich Balochistan province.
On August 19, the separatist militants killed the deputy commissioner of Panjgur district.
The Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies said there have been 1,524 violence-related fatalities and 1,463 injuries resulting from 789 terror attacks and counter-terror operations in 2023.
Islamabad has constantly called on the Taliban government in Kabul to stop the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan from using Afghan soil to launch attacks in Pakistan.
The Taliban administration has, however, denied the charges.
