By Staff Reporter
QUETTA: Security forces killed seven terrorists in an intelligence-based operation in Balochistan’s Kharan district on Sunday, according to state media, in the latest of a string of raids conducted across the province this month as the security situation there continues to deteriorate sharply.
The operation was carried out in the Lajay area under Operation Radd-ul-Fitna 3 after intelligence indicated militants were present there, security sources said. Several other terrorists were wounded in the raid. Those killed belonged to Fitna al-Khawarij — the government’s designation for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan — and had been involved in planning extortion, kidnapping for ransom, target killings and suicide attacks in the area, according to the sources.
Security forces recovered weapons, ammunition and other military equipment from the militants’ hideouts, along with two vehicles and a motorcycle, which were subsequently destroyed along with the hideouts themselves.
President Asif Ali Zardari paid tribute to the operation in a statement, describing the destruction of the hideouts and the recovery of arms as “an important achievement”. He said actions against terrorist elements “active under foreign patronage” were essential to safeguarding national security, and that the nation stood behind the security forces in the fight against terrorism.
Sunday’s raid follows a succession of similar operations across the province in recent days. On Saturday, security forces killed 10 terrorists and wounded several others in the Shor Parod mountainous range of Khuzdar district, targeting militants said to be affiliated with the Indian proxy Fitna al-Hindustan. Earlier in the week, at least 18 terrorists were killed in Surab district — eight of them in a premature explosion — while five more, including a commander identified as Wazir, son of Jamal, were killed in an operation in the Sarkeni and Chidgi areas of Panjgur district.
The pace of operations has intensified through August. On the 9th, forces killed 15 terrorists in coordinated raids spanning Mastung, Bolan, Washuk, Awaran, Sibi, Khuzdar, Harnai and Noshki, seizing a large quantity of weapons in the process. Three days earlier, on the 6th, 12 terrorists were killed in Washuk and Mastung.
The federal government last year designated all terrorist groups operating in Balochistan as Fitna al-Hindustan, accusing India of sponsoring a proxy war through militant proxies in the province — an allegation India has previously dismissed. The Radd-ul-Fitna 3 campaign, now in its third phase, has been framed by the military’s media wing as a sustained effort to dismantle that network.
Despite the intensity of the crackdown, Balochistan’s security situation has continued to worsen. According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies’ monthly assessment, published on 31 July, the province recorded the sharpest deterioration in security anywhere in the country last month. The overall death toll rose 241 per cent, from 109 in June to 372 in July. Security personnel deaths climbed from six to 62 — a rise of 933 per cent — while terrorist deaths increased from 75 to 238 and civilian deaths rose 93 per cent, from 28 to 54. Eighteen members of local peace committees were also killed.
A separate report by the Centre for Research and Security Studies found that Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa together accounted for nearly 96 per cent of all violence-related deaths recorded nationwide in the second quarter of 2026, with KP the worst affected of the two. Data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project shows the broader trend has been building for years: attacks across Pakistan have nearly quadrupled since 2022, from 658 that year to 2,425 in 2025, while TTP attacks alone rose more than sevenfold, from 118 to 838, over the same period.
Civilians have borne much of the cost. On the final day of 2025, terrorists attacked civilians in Balochistan’s Gwadar and Kharan districts, killing 18 people, among them women, children, elderly residents and labourers. Earlier this month, at least 30 people — 27 of them police officers — were killed when militants identified by the state as Fitna al-Hindustan ambushed police deployed in the Kach Mangi Phase III area of Ziarat, setting off hours of gun battles and abducting several civilians and officers during the assault.
In response, the Pakistan Army, the Frontier Corps and Balochistan Police launched a joint operation that remains ongoing, with security forces stepping up action against militant networks across the province.
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