ISLAMABAD: At least 18 soldiers were killed and five, including two civilians, injured after separatist militants launched overnight attacks in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, the military’s media affairs wing said on Saturday, adding that 23 terrorists were also gunned down in “sanitisation operations” following the assaults.
The incident took place in Mangochar town, in Balochistan’s Kalat district, on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday when militants attempted to establish roadblocks in the area, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the army’s media wing, said.
“Security forces and law enforcement agencies were immediately mobilised, who successfully thwarted the evil design of terrorists,” the ISPR said, adding that 18 soldiers were killed during the operation.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of the most prominent separatist groups operating in the southwestern province, claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it had captured a Pakistan security forces camp in Mangochar.
The attacks, according to local administration, started late Friday when militants assaulted three different sites in Mangochar. Bilal Shabbir, Kalat’s deputy commissioner, said the attacks took place in Pidrang, Khazeni and Mangochar Bazaar areas of the town, where militants started conducting snap checks of passenger vehicles passing through town.
In the first incident, Shabbir said a van carrying 17 soldiers from Panjgur to Quetta came under attack near the mountainous area of Khazeni, where armed men battled the security forces. He said one soldier of the Frontier Corps (FC), a paramilitary force, was separately killed in clashes with the militants.
“The bodies of the slain soldiers were shifted to Quetta,” Shabbir said. “We don’t know how many attackers were killed because they took the bodies of their fighters into the mountains in the dark.”
He said three FC personnel were also injured in the attack, adding that militants set a private bank on fire in Mangochar Bazaar.
Separatist groups like BLA have long been at the forefront of a low-level insurgency in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by area and rich in mineral resources. Separatists claim that Islamabad is abusing the province’s natural wealth while ignoring the local population.
In recent months, the BLA has become a major security threat, carrying out large-scale attacks in Balochistan and other parts of Pakistan, targeting Chinese nationals and interests engaged in investment projects, security forces, and ethnic Punjabis they perceive as outsiders in Balochistan.