By Staff Reporter
QUETTA: Security forces killed three militants in a raid in the restive south-western province of Balochistan on Thursday, officials said, the latest in a string of operations as the region grapples with a sharp escalation in violence.
The operation took place in the Badrang area of Awaran district, according to state broadcaster Radio Pakistan, which cited security sources as saying a substantial cache of weapons and ammunition was seized from the militants. Officials attributed the men to Fitna al Hindustan, the label Pakistani authorities have adopted for separatist militant groups operating in Balochistan.
Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi hailed the raid as a “successful operation” carried out under the government’s Operation Radd-ul-Fitna framework, according to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan. He said it demonstrated the “capability and commitment” of security forces confronting threats in the province, and that personnel stationed across Balochistan were discharging their duties “with commitment and resolve.”
Separately, in comments carried by his ministry, Naqvi said security forces were “determined to restore peace in Balochistan” and that “the nation stands shoulder to shoulder with security forces in eliminating terrorism.”
The minister added that eradicating militants and those who assist them was a demand shared across the country, and that state institutions would press on with efforts to confront the security challenges the province faces.
A province under strain
Balochistan — Pakistan’s largest province by area but among its poorest and least developed — sits on the borders of Iran and Afghanistan and has for decades been the setting of a separatist insurgency that has gathered pace in recent years. Ethnic Baloch militants accuse Islamabad of plundering the province’s mineral wealth while starving it of development, an allegation the government rejects, insisting it is investing in the uplift of local communities.
Awaran district, where Thursday’s operation unfolded, has been a particular flashpoint, recording a rise in attacks on infrastructure projects, security personnel, police and both non-native Pakistanis and foreign nationals.
The raid followed a violent 48 hours in the province. A day earlier, gunmen stormed a private security camp belonging to a local tribal leader in Khuzdar district, killing five people, among them a police officer, a senior police official said. That attack came after five labourers from Punjab province were abducted at gunpoint from an agricultural field in Killa Abdullah district, close to the Afghan border, on Tuesday. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
No group has claimed responsibility for either the Khuzdar ambush or the Killa Abdullah kidnapping. Baloch separatist factions have frequently targeted tribal leaders as well as migrant workers and commuters from other parts of Pakistan, whom they accuse of acting as informants for the state.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused India of backing the separatist campaign and Afghanistan of harbouring militants who cross the border to mount attacks in the resource-rich province. Both New Delhi and Kabul have consistently rejected the allegations.
A month of intensified fighting
Thursday’s operation is the latest in a marked intensification of counter-militancy activity across Balochistan, where attacks climbed seven per cent last month, from 83 in July to 89 in August, according to monthly figures compiled by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.
The surge has been driven by two distinct threats: the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, which has claimed a series of attacks on security infrastructure, and Baloch separatist networks operating under the state’s Fitna al Hindustan designation.
Among the most serious incidents was an overnight assault on the night of 31 August into 1 September, when TTP militants mounted a coordinated attack on the Customs House at Ziarat Cross on the N-50 national highway in Pishin district. Security forces repelled the assault, killing ten attackers, though six of their own personnel — including two officers — were killed in the exchange of fire, the military’s media wing said.
On the same day, 11 fighters linked to Fitna al Hindustan were killed after establishing an illegal checkpoint on the N-40 Quetta–Taftan highway in Chagai district’s Nokcha area, which they were reportedly using to extort passing traffic.
The following days brought further clashes. On 2 September, security forces killed 12 militants during an intelligence-based operation in Kalat district. Days later, separate raids in Kharan and Washuk districts left 11 more dead and yielded the recovery of 2.9 tonnes of explosives.
The Inter-Services Public Relations, the military’s press wing, reported on 4 September that a further 36 militants had been killed in a series of “high-tempo” operations spanning Mastung, Quetta, Kalat and Sibi districts — operations that also thwarted an attempted attack on a police station in Sibi’s Bhag area.
Only days before Thursday’s raid, nine militants — among them a senior commander of a banned organisation — were killed in two separate operations conducted by security forces and the Balochistan Counter-Terrorism Department across Mastung, Pishin and Qila Abdullah districts.
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