By Staff Reporter
QUETTA: The security forces killed 13 militants accused of being backed by India in two intelligence-based operations in restive Balochistan province, the military said Wednesday, as the country grapples with a sharp rise in deadly attacks.
The operations, carried out in the districts of Quetta and Kech between September 30 and October 1, targeted militant hideouts, according to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
In Quetta, troops “effectively engaged the terrorists’ location, and after an intense fire exchange, 10 Indian-sponsored terrorists were killed,” the ISPR said. The slain fighters belonged to “Fitna al-Khwarij”, a term the military commonly uses for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and “Fitna al-Hindustan,” its label for the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist group.
A second raid in Kech district “busted a terrorist hideout” where three more “Indian-sponsored terrorists” from Fitna al-Hindustan were “successfully neutralised,” the statement added. “Weapons, ammunition, and explosives were also recovered from the killed Khwarij and terrorists, who remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities.”
In a related development, security forces arrested four militants “belonging to the Indian proxy, ‘Fitna al Hindustan’,” who were “attempting to flee by disguising themselves in women’s attire” in the Khuzdar district on Wednesday, the ISPR said. Troops were now conducting a “sanitisation operation to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area.” “The security forces of Pakistan are determined to wipe out the menace of Indian-sponsored terrorism from the country, and reaffirm the nation’s unwavering resolve to bring the perpetrators of terrorism to justice.”
The raids came a day after a suicide bomber struck near the headquarters of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) in Quetta, the provincial capital, killing 11 people. Islamabad accuses arch-rival India and neighbouring Afghanistan of backing such groups to sow chaos in Balochistan, where Pakistan is courting foreign investment in its vast mineral deposits.
Pakistan has seen a 74 percent surge in terror incidents in August compared to July, according to a report by the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), with 194 fatalities recorded from militant attacks that month. Security forces and law enforcement agencies have ramped up intelligence-based operations nationwide as part of a government push to curb the violence. Recently, Pakistan, along with China, Iran and Russia, voiced “deep concern” over terrorist outfits operating from Afghanistan, including Al-Qaeda, the TTP, the BLA and similar groups.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi hailed the operations as a tribute to the forces’ efforts.”Mohsin Naqvi pays tribute to the security forces on two successful operations against Indian-sponsored terrorists in Balochistan,” his ministry said in a statement. “The security forces, through successful operations, foiled the nefarious designs of Indian-sponsored terrorists.”
“For the establishment of peace in Balochistan, the security forces have achieved remarkable successes against Indian-sponsored terrorists. Operations by the security forces to eliminate Indian-sponsored terrorists will continue.”
Balochistan has long been the scene of a separatist insurgency by groups like the BLA, who protest Islamabad’s grip on local resources and demand greater autonomy. The government insists it is working to develop the impoverished province. In a separate front, the TTP and allied militants have intensified assaults in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province since the 2021 collapse of the US-backed government in Kabul, exploiting alleged safe havens across the border to stage cross-border strikes.
The province is a strategic prize, brimming with untapped minerals and hosting the Chinese-built Gwadar Port, a linchpin of the $65 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor — a flagship project in President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative aimed at expanding Beijing’s influence via land, rail and sea links.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
