At least 33 people were killed in a wave of coordinated assaults across Balochistan, including in Quetta and Gwadar, as security forces clashed with militants from the Baloch Liberation Army.
Multiple attacks unfolded across Pakistan’s southwestern
Balochistan province on Saturday, leaving at least 33 people dead, including security personnel and civilians, according to the military. Officials said 92 militants, including “three suicide bombers”, were also killed in the violence that struck several districts, among them the provincial capital, Quetta, and the port city of Gwadar.
Pakistan has faced a separatist insurgency in Balochistan for decades, with frequent assaults on security forces, foreign nationals, and non-locals in the mineral-rich province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
Casualties and military statement
The military’s media wing said in a statement that “Eighteen innocent civilians” and 15 security personnel were killed in the attacks, while the number of militants killed stood at 92. The circumstances surrounding the deaths of the civilians were not immediately clear.
Baloch separatists have previously targeted civilians believed to have collaborated with state agencies.
A senior military official in Islamabad described the assaults as “coordinated but poorly executed”, adding that they had “failed due to poor planning and rapid collapse under effective security response”.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised security forces for “foiling” the attacks.
“We will continue the war against terrorism until its complete eradication,” he said in a statement, in which he accused India of backing the separatists.
Police officials in four districts earlier told AFP that the situation had not yet been fully brought under control.
Explosions and disruption in Quetta and beyond
In Quetta, an AFP journalist reported hearing several explosions as heavy security was deployed across the city. Major roads were deserted and businesses shut.
“Since morning, there have been explosions one after another,” Abdul Wali, 38, told AFP as he struggled to find blood for his hospitalised mother.
“The police point guns at us and say ‘go back’, otherwise they beat us. What should we do?”
A senior official in Quetta told AFP that militants had abducted a deputy district commissioner.
A senior government official in another district said militants had “freed at least 30 inmates from a district jail, seizing firearms and ammunition. They also attacked a police station and took ammunition with them”.
Mobile phone services were jammed and traffic disrupted in the affected districts, while train services were suspended across the province.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), described as the most active militant separatist group in the province, claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement sent to AFP.
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