By Staff Reporter
QUETTA: Security forces killed 17 militants in two operations in the southwestern province of Balochistan, in which a soldier also died, the military said on Tuesday.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the army’s media wing, said the operations were carried out on 1 November in the districts of Kachhi and Kharan after intelligence reports of militants in the area. It said the targets belonged to groups it called “Fitna al-Hindustan” and “Fitna al-Khawarij”.
In the Sanni area of Kachhi, security forces foiled an attempt to set up a roadblock and killed 10 militants, the ISPR said. Weapons and ammunition were recovered.
In Kharan, troops raided a militant hideout. Seven militants, whom the military linked to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), were killed after an intense exchange of fire. Weapons and ammunition were also recovered there.
Sepoy Hikmatullah was killed in the Kharan gunfight. The ISPR said he had “fought gallantly” and “paid the ultimate sacrifice”. He was 25 and from Karak district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“Sanitisation operations” were continuing in the area to find any remaining militants, the ISPR said. It added that the counterterrorism campaign under Azm-e-Istehkam, a strategy approved by the Federal Apex Committee on the National Action Plan, would continue “at full pace”.
Fitna al-Hindustan is the label the federal government applied last year to all militant groups operating in Balochistan, accusing India of sponsoring a proxy war through them. Fitna al-Khawarij is the state’s term for militants affiliated with the TTP.
President Asif Ali Zardari praised the security forces and said Sepoy Hikmatullah’s sacrifice for the country’s “defence, peace and security” would always be remembered. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also paid tribute to the troops, according to a statement from his office.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least developed province, borders Iran and Afghanistan and has been the site of a long-running separatist insurgency that has intensified in recent years. Separatists accuse the central government of taking the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere. The government denies this and says it is working to improve conditions for local communities.
Tuesday’s announcement follows a series of similar operations. The military reported nine militants killed in separate raids in Kachhi and Wadh in late October. Reuters reported that five militants were killed in a joint operation in Khuzdar district nearly a week before this one. Last month the army said a major and four militants died in multiple operations in the province.
The scale of the violence has been considerable. Balochistan’s chief minister said in December that more than 200 security personnel had been killed in militant attacks in the province in 2025, while forces had killed 760 militants. In January, separatists launched coordinated attacks across the province, hitting Quetta, Gwadar, Kharan and Kalat.
Terrorism is a growing problem for Pakistan as a whole. Data from the monitoring group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) show that attacks have risen every year since 2022. They went from 658 that year to 2,425 in 2025, while TTP attacks rose more than sevenfold, from 118 to 838. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has borne the brunt, but Balochistan has also been a major target, with militants frequently attacking convoys, abducting security personnel and civilians, and striking security and civilian installations.
October brought some respite after two consecutive months of rising violence. The Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) recorded 143 attacks nationwide, down from 226 in September. Balochistan saw one of the sharpest improvements: attacks there fell 46 per cent, from 132 to 71.
Nationally, deaths from attacks fell 57 per cent, from 260 to 111, and injuries fell 71 per cent, from 242 to 69. Suicide attacks also dropped sharply. The 169 militants killed in October was the lowest monthly figure in the preceding 12 months, the report said. A sharp rise in kidnappings, particularly in Balochistan, continued to pose a serious security challenge.
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