By Staff Reporter
QUETTA: Ten militants have been killed and two counter-terrorism officers wounded in a gun battle in Balochistan province, officials said on Saturday.
The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) carried out the raid in Barkhan district after receiving intelligence that members of a banned militant group were in the area.
“During an intense gun battle, 10 armed terrorists were killed and two CTD officials were injured,” said Babar Yousafzai, an aide in the provincial Home Department.
Shahid Rind, the adviser to Balochistan’s chief minister for information and political affairs, confirmed the incident at a press briefing. He said the operation was launched in the Rara Sham area after the CTD obtained precise intelligence on the militants’ movements.
“A fierce exchange of fire broke out as security teams closed in on the hideout,” he said. Officers later recovered a large quantity of heavy weapons, military-grade arms and live ammunition, he added.
The two injured officers were taken to hospital and are receiving treatment, Rind said. The bodies of the militants were taken to the district hospital in Rara Sham.
Officials said the dead belonged to Fitna al-Hindustan, the label Islamabad applies to Baloch militant groups. The federal government last year designated all armed groups operating in Balochistan under that name, accusing India of sponsoring a proxy war through them.
The raid was carried out under Operation Radd-ul-Fitna 3. The first phase of that campaign was launched in February after a wave of attacks by the Balochistan Liberation Army, with officials claiming at least 216 militants were killed. In the same month, the CTD said it had killed six militants in a separate operation in Rakhni, also in Barkhan.
Rind said security forces, police and the CTD remained united and that such operations would continue until militancy was eliminated from the province.
The raid follows a run of operations in the province. On 7 October, security forces killed five suspected militants in Mastung district, according to state media. Late last month, the military’s media wing said more than 71 militants had been killed in Shaban and other areas of Balochistan over 96 hours.
On 17 September, three suspected militants were killed in an intelligence-based operation in the Badrang area of Awaran district, and another three died in Mastung on 14 September. Earlier that month, 21 were killed in separate engagements in Nokcha, Chagai, Ziarat Cross and Pishin.
Violence in the province has continued despite the operations. The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) said attacks in Balochistan rose by 7 per cent, from 83 in July to 89 in August. It declared the province the country’s worst affected by militancy.
Pakistan has seen a surge in attacks over the past three months, many of them aimed at security personnel and civilians.
Last week, 12 people were killed and 35 injured when a bomb struck a joint checkpoint near Aman Mela in the Darazinda area of Dera Ismail Khan, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Pakistani Taliban (TTP) claimed responsibility.
On 19 September, 23 people, including 15 police officers, were killed in a blast at a mosque in the Police Lines in Kohat during Friday prayers. Eight attackers were killed in a subsequent clearance operation. The Ittihadul Mujahideen Pakistan, led by the Afghanistan-based commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, later claimed responsibility.
In a separate incident in Hangu district, a captain and a lieutenant were among six security personnel killed in a gun battle in which eight militants also died.
On 1 September, six personnel, including two officers, and a customs official were killed as security forces foiled an attempt to breach the Customs House in Balochistan.
In July, at least 30 people, including 27 police officers, were killed when militants ambushed police in the Kach Mangi Phase III area of Ziarat, setting off hours of fighting. The state blamed Fitna al-Hindustan for the attack. The assailants also abducted several civilians and police personnel.
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