By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Security forces killed 13 militants over the weekend in operations targeting insurgent groups in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, part of an escalating campaign against terrorism in the two restive provinces.
In Balochistan’s Kalat district, troops raided a hideout on the night of July 19-20, killing four operatives affiliated with Fitna al Hindustan, a label the Pakistani government applies to all terrorist groups in Balochistan since May this year.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media arm, said in a statement that forces “effectively engaged the terrorists’ location, and after an intense fire exchange, four Indian sponsored terrorists were sent to hell.” Weapons, ammunition, and explosives were recovered from the dead terrorists, who were “actively involved in numerous terrorist activities in the area”.
State-run PTV News reported that a Fitna Al Hindustan flag was also seized during the raid.
The province has long grappled with militancy, with Baloch separatists frequently attacking security forces and civilians. Despite intensified government efforts, violence has continued to plague the region.
Earlier this week, gunmen fired on a passenger bus in Kalat, killing three people and injuring seven others. On Saturday, a senior security forces officer was martyred in a bomb attack near Quetta, the provincial capital.
Police said a magnetic explosive device was attached to the officer’s vehicle in the Western Bypass area, detonating in the Jabl-i-Noor locality. CCTV footage captured a motorcyclist affixing the device to the driver’s side door moments before the blast.
President Asif Ali Zardari praised the security forces for their actions in Kalat. “The security forces are always determined to eradicate terrorism,” he said in a statement from his office. “Terrorism will be defeated at all costs with national unity.” The president vowed that operations would persist, adding, “Fitna Al Hindustan will be pursued till the end.”
The ISPR emphasized that a “sanitisation operation is being conducted to eliminate any other terrorist found in the area,” underscoring Pakistan’s resolve to “wipe out the menace of Indian sponsored terrorism from the country and reaffirm the nation’s unwavering resolve to bring the perpetrators of terrorism to justice.”
In a separate effort, security forces killed nine terrorists and captured eight others during a four-day joint operation in KP’s Malakand district, the ISPR reported on Sunday.
The operation, conducted with police, the Counter Terrorism Department, paramilitary units, and local administration, targeted members of Fitna Al Khawarij, a term designating TTP affiliates. “During the conduct of operation, spread over four days, [our] own forces skillfully surrounded and effectively engaged the khawarij location, and after intense multiple fire exchanges, nine Indian-sponsored khawarij were sent to hell, while eight [others] were apprehended,” the ISPR said.
Two terrorist hideouts were destroyed, and a cache of weapons, ammunition, and explosives was recovered. The military noted that “locals of the area appreciated the operation and expressed their full support for the state’s counter-terrorism efforts.”
The ISPR reiterated that “security forces and law enforcement agencies of Pakistan, in step with the nation, are determined to wipe out the menace of Indian sponsored terrorism from the country.”
Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have borne the brunt of a rising tide of militancy over the past year, particularly since the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022.
Pakistan ranked second in the Global Terrorism Index 2025, with terrorism-related deaths climbing 45 percent to 1,081 in the past year.
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