By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Security forces killed more than 14 terrorists in a raid in the restive Balochistan province, officials said on Saturday, in what the interior minister described as a “major success” against groups the government accuses India of sponsoring to destabilise the region.
The operation conducted in the Zehri area of Khuzdar district, where forces “foiled an attempt to harass peaceful people,” according to state broadcaster PTV News. Troops destroyed multiple terrorist hideouts, killing over 14 members of Fitna al-Hindustan and injuring more than 20 others.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi congratulated the forces, hailing the effort as evidence of their “professional capabilities and courage.” He said the nation was “proud” of the troops and emphasised their resolve. “Security forces are determined to eliminate Indian-sponsored terrorists in Balochistan,” Naqvi said. “The people of Balochistan stand with the security forces. Indian-sponsored terrorists will not be allowed to hide anywhere.”
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti called the operations “proof that the people of Balochistan and the forces are together grinding the nefarious designs of the country’s enemies into the dust.” “I am proud of the bravery of my youth and people,” Bugti said. “Long live Pakistan!”
The term Fitna al-Hindustan, which the government introduced in May, encompasses all terrorist organizations operating in Balochistan. Officials have used it to highlight what they call India’s deliberate role in fomenting instability, a framing that analysts say could help rally domestic support amid rising violence.
The Khuzdar raid followed closely on another operation in Balochistan’s Sherani district, where security forces killed seven India-sponsored terrorists just days earlier. That intelligence-based operation targeted members of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, also referred to as Fitna al Khwarij.“During the operation, own troops effectively engaged the terrorists’ location, and after an intense fire exchange, seven Indian-sponsored terrorists were sent to hell,” the military’s Inter-Services Public Relations office said in a statement.
The back-to-back strikes come against a backdrop of escalating violence across Pakistan to provinces bordering Afghanistan. A report released this week by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, a think tank in Islamabad, documented a 46 percent surge in overall violence during the third quarter of 2025. The country recorded at least 901 fatalities and 599 injuries from 329 incidents, including terror attacks and counter-terror operations. Those figures bring the death toll for the first nine months of 2025 to 2,414 — nearly matching the 2,546 fatalities reported for all of 2024.
Of the 901 deaths in the third quarter, 516 were militants, while 385 were civilians and security personnel. Civilian fatalities totaled 219, and 166 members of the security forces were killed.
The provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan bore the overwhelming majority of the violence, accounting for more than 96 percent of incidents nationwide. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa suffered 71 percent of the fatalities — 638 in total — and 67 percent of the incidents, with 221 reported. Balochistan followed with 25 percent of fatalities, or 230, and 85 incidents. Compared with the second quarter, when the country saw 616 fatalities, the third quarter marked sharp increases in those two provinces: 64 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, from 390 to 638 deaths, and 21 percent in Balochistan, from 190 to 230.
Meanwhile, authorities have imposed a partial curfew in South Waziristan district near the Afghanistan border, a response to intensifying militant attacks targeting security forces in the volatile northwest, local media reported on Saturday.
The curfew, in effect in Serwekai tehsil, restricts movement along the Kandahari-to-Siplatoi and Baron-to-Molay Khan routes from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. It aims to counter “threats to the movement of security contingents and logistics that may result in loss of civilian life and property,” said Muhammad Abid Majeed, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Additional Chief Secretary for Home and Tribal Affairs. “People are requested to abide by the restriction and cooperate with concerned authorities,” Majeed said in a statement.
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