Pakistan forces kill 145 'terrorists' after deadly BKA attacks 

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - QUETTA — Pakistani police and military have killed at least 145 militants " in the restive Balochistan provincein "counterterrorism operations launched after a series of coordinated gun and bomb attacks left nearly 50 people dead, authorities said.

The announcement on Sunday came a day after the attacks, which began early on Saturday at multiple locations across southwestern Balochistan and left 31 civilians, including five women, and 17 security personnel dead.

Sarfraz Bugti, the provincial chief minister, told reporters in Quetta that troops and police responded swiftly, killing 145 members of the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA. The number of militants killed over the past two days was the highest in decades, he said.

“The bodies of these 145 killed terrorists are in our custody, and some of them are Afghan nationals,” he said.

He spoke alongside senior government official Hamza Shafqat, who often oversees such operations against insurgents in the province, and praised the military, police and paramilitary forces for repelling the assaults.

The BLA assault prompted authorities to impose months-long security restrictions on the province, banning public gatherings, demonstrations and limiting traffic movement.

The measures also ban the use of face coverings that conceal the identification of individuals in public places, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Pakistan’s military said 92 fighters were killed on Saturday, while 41 were killed on Friday.

“We had intelligence reports that this kind of operation was being planned, and as a result of those, we started pre-operations a day before,” Bugti said.

Bugti accused India and Afghanistan of backing the assailants, and said senior leaders of the BLA were operating from Afghan territory.

In a statement on Sunday, India denied the assertion, accusing Islamabad of deflecting attention from its own internal problems.

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“We categorically reject the ‌baseless allegations made by Pakistan,” the spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal, said, adding that Islamabad should instead address the “longstanding demands of its people in the region”.

Balochistan, which is also Pakistan’s poorest province, has faced decades-long violence and separatist attacks by ethnic Baloch seeking greater autonomy and a larger share of the area’s natural resources.

The BLA regularly targets Pakistani security forces and has attacked civilians, including Chinese nationals, who are among thousands working on various projects in the province.

Officials said the latest assaults on Saturday were launched almost simultaneously across the Quetta, ​Gwadar, Mastung and Noshki districts, with armed men opening fire at security installations, including a Frontier Corps headquarters, attempting ‌suicide bombings and briefly blocking roads in urban areas.

According to Pakistan’s junior interior minister, Talal Chaudhry, the attackers dressed as civilians entered hospitals, schools, banks and markets on Saturday before opening fire,

“In each case, the attackers came in dressed as civilians and indiscriminately targeted ordinary people working in shops,” he said, claiming that the fighters also used civilians as human shields.

Pakistani Minister of Defence Khawaja Asif said that two of the attacks involved female fighters. He noted that the attacks were now increasingly targeting civilians, labourers and low-income communities.

The United States condemned the attacks, with its charge d’affaires, Natalie Baker, calling them acts of terrorist violence and saying Washington stood in solidarity ‍with Pakistan. The BLA is designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organization. — Agencies