By Staff Reporter
QUETTA: Security forces killed six suspected militants in two separate operations in Balochistan on Monday, according to security officials, the latest in a string of raids the military says are part of an intensifying campaign against insurgent groups in the restive southwestern province.
Four militants were killed in a mountainous area between the towns of Ziarat and Harnai, security sources said, after forces received intelligence that three to four fighters were hiding inside an abandoned house. Surveillance confirmed their presence, the sources said, and forces surrounded the structure before opening fire. A search operation was continuing in the area Monday, the sources said, as forces worked to clear the site.
In a second, earlier raid Monday, two militants were killed and three others wounded in Balochistan’s Killi Zaik area, state-run Radio Pakistan reported, citing security officials. That operation followed intelligence indicating militants were positioned between Killi Zaik and Kaghli, roughly 12 kilometers north of Baseema Camp, according to the sources.
Security officials identified one of those killed in the Killi Zaik raid as Mushtaq Ahmed, who they said also went by the alias Koh Yar. Forces recovered ammunition, magazines, hand grenades and materials associated with improvised explosive devices from the site, the sources said.
Both raids were described by security officials as part of “Radd-ul-Fitna-3,” an ongoing military campaign that Pakistan’s armed forces have characterized publicly as targeting networks they say are backed by India. Security sources said forces remained committed to continuing operations until what they described as the elimination of terrorism and the restoration of lasting peace in the province.
The Pakistani government last year formally labeled armed groups operating in Balochistan as “Fitna al-Hindustan,” asserting that India sponsors a proxy war through them. A separate designation, “Fitna al-Khawarij,” refers to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Monday’s operations followed a similarly bloody stretch of days. Security sources said seven terrorists affiliated with Fitna al-Khawarij were killed Sunday in the Lajay area of Kharan district, also under the Radd-ul-Fitna-3 banner. Five days earlier, on Aug. 10, forces killed five militants in Panjgur district, including a man security officials identified as a commander named Wazir, son of Jamal, in the Sarkeni and Chidgi areas.
The toll climbs further back. On Aug. 9, security forces reported killing 15 militants across eight districts — Mastung, Bolan, Washuk, Awaran, Sibi, Khuzdar, Harnai and Noshki — in a single day of coordinated raids that officials said also yielded a substantial recovery of weapons and ammunition and disrupted militant movement across the province. Three days before that, on Aug. 6, the military’s media wing reported killing 12 terrorists it identified as belonging to Fitna al-Hindustan in the Washuk and Mastung districts.
The operations come as Pakistan confronts a marked rise in militant violence nationally. Attacks across the country climbed to 2,425 last year from 658 in 2022 — nearly a fourfold increase — according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, which tracks political violence globally. Over the same period, attacks attributed to the TTP rose more than sevenfold, from 118 to 838, the data show.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province has absorbed the largest share of that violence, but Balochistan has increasingly become a target as well, with attacks there frequently striking civilians and military installations, according to security officials. On the final day of 2025, militants attacked civilians in Balochistan’s Gwadar and Kharan districts, killing 18 people, including women, children, elderly residents and laborers, authorities said at the time.
Earlier this month, an ambush on police in the Kach Mangi Phase III area of Ziarat killed at least 30 people, including 27 police officers, according to security officials, touching off hours of gun battles. Attackers also abducted several civilians and police personnel during the assault, the officials said. Pakistani authorities attributed the attack to the group they designate Fitna al-Hindustan.
In its aftermath, the Pakistan Army, the paramilitary Frontier Corps and Balochistan Police launched a joint operation that remains active, with officials saying forces have intensified operations against militant groups across the province since.
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