Pakistan’s Chief of Defense Forces and Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir. File Photo credits: Inter Services Public Relations via AP

Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab arrested 24 terrorists, most of whom belong to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). (Illustration used for representation purpose only)

Image for representational purposes only.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday (August 27, 2024) strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in the restive Balochistan province as he reiterated the unwavering resolve of his government to root out terrorism from the country.

Heavily armed Baloch gunmen killed at least 37 people in separate attacks in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Monday (August 26, 2024), as insurgent attacks spiked in the region bordering Iran and Afghanistan.

Chairing a Cabinet meeting a day after violence in Balochistan stunned the country, Mr. Sharif strongly condemned the terrorist incidents that resulted in the death of innocent Pakistanis including security personnel, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.

He said the sacrifices rendered by the people and the Armed Forces of Pakistan in the war against terrorism will not go waste. “The entire nation is committed for complete elimination of terrorism from the country,” he said.

Mr. Sharif said all available resources would be provided to the Armed Forces to curb terrorism. He said time has come to eliminate terrorism. “We need to move forward towards this path with firm resolve,” he said.

He said doors of dialogue are open for those who believe in Pakistan and its Constitution. However, no talks will be held with the enemies and terrorists, he added.

Referring to the terrorist incidents, he said it is no secret now that the terrorists of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, operating from Afghanistan, are behind terrorist attacks. He said the government has already sensitised the Afghan government on the issue.

He said the terrorist acts being carried out in Balochistan are aimed at creating anarchy and disturbance in Pakistan and to disrupt the steps being taken by the government for development of the country. However, their nefarious designs could not terrorise the people and disrupt the development process.

Mr. Sharif stressed the need for forging unity, saying such despicable designs are only meant to impede the country’s progress, ongoing CPEC projects in Balochistan and undermine the time-tested friendship between Pakistan and China.

He announced to soon visit Balochistan to hold in-depth deliberations on the situation and decide on immediate measures to deal with it.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi visited Balochistan on Tuesday to support the provincial government in its efforts to tackle militancy.

“My aim to visit is to let you all and the people of Balochistan know that the federal interior minister is standing behind the Balochistan chief minister. Whatever decision he (chief minister Bugti) makes, we will support him,” he told the media in Quetta flanked by Chief Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti.

Mr. Naqvi ruled out any fresh operation, saying that a police station house officer was enough to tackle the law and order with proper and timely response. “They are terrorists and our civil armed forces, armed forces, and the police know how to combat them,” the minister said.

Mr. Bugti on the occasion rejected the impression about lack of response to the terrorist attacks and said that the hunt for terrorists was under way.

“How can you say that there was no response [to the attacks]?” the chief minister said, as he cited the example of a captain who was killed fighting the rebels.

Balochistan faces a double threat by the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Baloch militants.

Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is home to a long-running violent insurgency. Baloch insurgent groups have previously carried out several attacks targeting the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

The separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) is opposed to China’s investments in Balochistan and accuses China and Pakistan of exploitation of the resource-rich province, a charge rejected by the authorities.

Representative image. A roadside bomb blast in restive southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, August 24, killed at least two children.
| Photo Credit: AP

A roadside bomb attached to a motorcycle went off near a police office in restive south-western Pakistan on Saturday (August 24, 2024), killing at least two children and wounding 15 people, authorities said.

Local police official Mujirbur Rehman said the bomb seemed to have been detonated using a remote control and that an investigation was ongoing. He also said some of those wounded included policemen and passersby and some were hospitalized in critical condition.

The bodies of the dead were also transported to a nearby hospital, Mr. Rehman added.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack that happened in Pishin, a district in Balochistan province. However, suspicion is likely to fall on separatist groups who have stepped up attacks on security forces and civilians in recent months.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi denounced the bombing in a statement and mourned the slain children, saying those behind the attack “do not deserve to be called humans.” He also vowed to continue the “war against terrorists and their facilitators until they are eliminated.”

For years, Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. Although the government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in the province has persisted.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, mostly in the northwest which borders Afghanistan, in recent years. Representative image
| Photo Credit: AP

All 10 militants who rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a Pakistani military facility were killed in an 18-hour operation, officials said July 16, adding that militants in a separate attack on a health facility killed five civilians.

In its statement, the Pakistani military said eight soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber early on Monday rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the outer wall of an army housing complex in Bannu, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The suicide attack

A splinter group of Pakistani Taliban, led by a militant commander Gul Bahadur, claimed the attack, which has been denounced by the country’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other officials.

The military said the suicide attack collapsed a portion of the wall and damaged nearby infrastructure, resulting in the killing of the eight soldiers.

Responding to the attack, security forces killed all ten attackers, it said. The military said a “timely and effective response by the security forces prevented major catastrophe.”

Pakistan has consistently raised its concerns with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the military adds, “asking them to deny persistent use of Afghan soil by the terrorists and to take effective action against such elements.”

The military said Pakistan’s armed forces “will keep defending the motherland and its people against this menace of terrorism and will take all necessary measures as deemed appropriate against these threats emanating from Afghanistan.”

There was no immediate comment from Kabul.

Surge in militant attacks

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, mostly in the northwest which borders Afghanistan, in recent years.

In a separate incident, five civilians, including two women health workers and two children, were killed on Tuesday when militants opened fire at a health facility in the northwestern district of Dera Ismail Khan, the military said in a statement.

In a statement, troops stationed nearby responded to the attack, killing three of the attackers. However, two soldiers were also “martyred” in the ensuing shootout, it said.

The military said that those behind the killings of innocent people “will be brought to justice.”

No one claimed responsibility for the attack on the health facility.

However, most such previous attacks on civilians and security forces have been blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.

They are a separate group but also an ally of the Afghan Taliban. TTP has stepped up its attacks on security forces across the country since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

A file photo of Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif 
| Photo Credit: AP

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has expressed hope for the betterment of ties with India after the general elections in India. Mr. Asif’s comments came days after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Singapore said that Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism almost at an “industry level” and the mood in India now is not to overlook terrorists and it “will not skirt this problem anymore”.

“Our relations with India could be improved after elections there,” Mr. Asif said while speaking to reporters outside the Parliament House in Islamabad on April 1 , adding that the bilateral ties between the two countries have their “own background”.

Voting for 543 Lok Sabha seats in India will take place between April 19 and June 4, spread across seven phases.

Also read: Pakistan to ‘seriously’ consider restoring trade ties with India: Foreign Minister Dar

Islamabad and New Delhi have a long history of strained relations, primarily due to the Kashmir issue as well as the cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. In 2019, Pakistan downgraded its diplomatic ties with New Delhi after the Indian government abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the State into two Union Territories. The decision, Islamabad said, undermined the environment for holding talks between the neighbours.

Pakistan has been insisting that the onus of improving the ties was on India and urging it to undo its “unilateral” steps in Kashmir as a sort of pre-condition to start the talks. India has dismissed the suggestion and made it clear to Pakistan that the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were integral and inalienable parts of the country.

New Delhi has also asserted that the constitutional measures taken by the Indian government to ensure socio-economic development and good governance in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are matters internal to India. It has been maintaining that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan while insisting that the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment that is free of terror and hostility for such an engagement.

Pakistan, which borders China, India, Afghanistan, and Iran has witnessed tensions with other neighbours, except for China, following cross-border attacks from Iran and Afghanistan.