By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Security forces killed eight militants, including a suicide bomber, in two intelligence-driven operations in the southwestern province of Balochistan over two consecutive days this week, the military said on Saturday, as Islamabad continued to press its accusation that India is sponsoring terrorism on its soil.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, said the operations were carried out on June 25 and 26 in the Kharan and Mastung districts as part of a sustained counter-terrorism campaign against what the government has designated as “Fitna al-Hindustan” — a collective label applied to Balochistan-based militant groups that authorities allege are proxies of Indian intelligence. India has consistently denied Pakistani allegations of involvement in Balochistan’s insurgency.
In the first operation, security forces in Kharan tracked the movement of a group of militants on June 25 and intercepted them, killing three and wounding several others. A day later, acting on intelligence about the possible presence of a suicide bomber, troops conducted a pre-emptive raid in Mastung. After an intense exchange of fire, five militants were killed, among them the would-be bomber. Weapons, ammunition, improvised explosive devices and motorcycles were recovered at the scene, ISPR said.
“Sanitisation operations are being conducted to eliminate any other Indian-sponsored terrorist found in the area,” the statement said, adding that the counter-terrorism campaign would continue “at full pace.”
Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership moved swiftly to commend the operations. President Asif Ali Zardari said the outcome reflected the professionalism and determination of the country’s armed forces, urging that operations press on until what he called “the complete eradication of foreign-sponsored terrorism.” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif echoed the sentiment. “The enemies of Pakistan’s peace will be given a crushing defeat on every front,” he said in a statement from his office. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the forces had “foiled the evil intentions of terrorists by taking timely action.”
The latest operations come amid an intensifying security campaign in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but most underdeveloped province, which shares borders with Iran and Afghanistan and has long been the theatre of a separatist insurgency that authorities say has grown more lethal in recent years.
Last month, more than 30 people were killed when a suicide bomber struck a passenger train in the province. The Baloch Liberation Army, a proscribed separatist group, claimed responsibility. On June 9, ISPR reported one soldier killed and 14 militants dead in a separate operation in Balochistan’s Basima area. On June 2, following the train bombing, security forces killed 17 militants in intelligence-based operations across multiple districts of the province.
The “Fitna al-Hindustan” designation, introduced by Islamabad as tensions with India spiked following the deadly April attack in occupied Kashmir that killed 26 tourists, is Pakistan’s formal attempt to frame the Balochistan insurgency as an externally driven proxy conflict rather than a homegrown separatist movement. India has attributed that April attack to Pakistan-based militants, a charge Islamabad rejects.
Balochistan has witnessed a sustained surge in militant violence targeting Chinese engineers working on infrastructure projects linked to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, as well as security forces, police, and settlers from other parts of Pakistan.
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