Pakistan reported Monday that its security forces raided a “terrorists’ location” in southwestern Balochistan province and killed 27 insurgents during what was described as an intelligence-driven operation.
A military statement said that “multiple hideouts, including caches of arms, ammunition, and explosives, were also destroyed during the operation” in the central Kachhi district of the large but sparsely populated province.
The announcement noted that law enforcement agencies wanted the slain insurgents for allegedly orchestrating “terrorist activities” against security personnel and civilians in the district, where the outlawed separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and its allies are active.
VOA could not immediately verify the official claims from independent sources, nor have Baloch insurgents commented on them.
Regional experts describe BLA as the largest and most lethal of all the separatist groups active in natural resources-rich Balochistan, which sits on Pakistan’s border with Iran and Afghanistan. The group, designated as a global terrorist organization by the United States, has claimed almost all local attacks in recent months, killing and injuring hundreds of people, mainly security forces.
Last week, dozens of heavily armed BLA fighters invaded the town of Zehri in the Khuzdar district of the province. They briefly took control of government facilities, including a security installation, and robbed a bank before setting several buildings on fire and escaping the area, according to the insurgent group and Pakistani officials.
The daring daylight insurgent attack sparked criticism regarding an alleged delay in the response of Pakistani security forces to the BLA strikes.
“Those responsible must explain how terrorists were able to commandeer the area for eight hours,” the English-language DAWN newspaper wrote in a subsequent editorial.
The provincial government initiated an investigation into the attack, resulting in the dismissal of over a dozen members of the paramilitary Balochistan Levies force for their alleged failure to resist the insurgents and surrender their weapons.
Insurgents allege that the central and provincial Pakistani governments exploit Balochistan’s natural resources, such as gold and copper, while disregarding the poverty-stricken local population.
Islamabad rejects the charges as baseless, saying that massive infrastructure development projects are underway in the province, including those funded by China. BLA has also targeted Chinese nationals associated with some of the projects in the region.
