By Staff Reporter
QUETTA: A Pakistani army major martyred and four militants have been killed in separate operations in Balochistan, the military said on Monday, as the province reels from a wave of kidnappings of officials, police recruits and workers.
Major Wajahat Waheed, 34, from Lahore, died when an improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated while he was leading clearance operations in the Shadi Kaur area of Pasni, in Gwadar district, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the army’s media wing.
In a separate intelligence-based operation on Sunday in the Jattakabad area of Kalat district, security forces killed four militants and recovered what the ISPR described as a large cache of arms and ammunition.
The ISPR said the raids targeted reported hideouts of “Fitna al Hindustan”, the term the Pakistani state uses for Baloch separatist groups as it accuses India of fomenting terrorism inside the country. New Delhi denies the allegation. The military’s account of the operations could not be independently verified.
“Sanitisation operations will continue to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area,” the ISPR said. It added that the counter-terrorism campaign, known as Azm-e-Istehkam and approved by the Federal Apex Committee on the National Action Plan, would continue “at full pace”.
The operations came after a run of high-profile abductions in the south-western province.
Asad Ullah Kakar, commissioner of the Rakhshan Division, was abducted in Kharan district after armed men blocked the Noshki–Kharan highway while he was travelling from Quetta in a private vehicle. His driver was later released. The same area saw the abduction of the Kharan deputy commissioner, Munir Ahmed Soomro, last month.
A day later, gunmen on motorcycles seized about 20 police recruits, formerly of the Levies Force, who were travelling in a van through Mastung district. The driver and three other passengers were released. The recruits had been returning home on leave from the Kalat training centre.
On Saturday night, dozens of armed men stormed a marble mine and factory in the remote Naal area, about 40km from Khuzdar city, and abducted at least 18 labourers, police said. The attackers fired on a worker who tried to flee. He was reported to have been shot in the leg and to be out of danger. The gunmen also made off with two vehicles and a loader, and the owner’s son was also taken.
The workers are locals from the Wadh and Naal areas. The mine is owned by the family of Sardar Aslam Bizenjo, a National Party politician and former provincial minister who is chief of the Bizenjo tribe. Security forces have launched a search operation. A similar raid in Naal in October 2025 saw 18 labourers taken from a construction company’s camp.
No group has claimed responsibility for any of the three abductions. Separatist militants in the province have in recent years targeted security forces, police, infrastructure projects, foreign nationals and non-native Pakistanis.
The army’s statement was the latest in a series of announcements of operations in the province. On Saturday, the ISPR said eight militants were killed in three raids in Quetta, Nushki and Khuzdar districts. Five of them died when forces intercepted an attempt to set up a roadblock in the Panjpai area of Quetta, two were killed in Nushki and one in Khuzdar, where 490kg of explosives were recovered.
The military said last week that five militants were killed in Washuk on the night of 12-13 October, and state media reported that five more died in Mastung earlier this month. Balochistan officials also said that six members of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, two would-be female suicide bombers and two commanders of a banned group had been arrested in raids across the province. About 90 detained suspects are being held at a centre where investigations and legal proceedings are under way, they said.
Attacks are rising. According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, militant attacks in the province increased by 7 per cent, from 83 in July to 89 in August, and it was the country’s worst-affected province.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but least developed province, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, and has been the scene of a long-running separatist insurgency. Separatists accuse the central government of stripping the region of its resources to pay for development elsewhere. Islamabad denies this, saying it is working for the uplift of local communities. It has also repeatedly accused India of backing militant groups, and Afghanistan of allowing its territory to be used for attacks, claims both countries reject.
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