Militant attacks kill 10 Pakistani security officers
At least 10 security personnel were killed after nearly a dozen coordinated attacks by attackers armed with guns and grenades targeted a high-security prison, police stations and paramilitary facilities in southern Pakistan.
At least 37 rebels were also killed in the clashes.
Although Baloch separatists and the Pakistani Taliban frequently target security forces in Balochistan and elsewhere in the country, coordinated attacks on this scale are rare.
Pakistani Interior Minister Muhsin Naqvi confirmed that 10 security personnel were killed. He also praised the forces for killing 37 insurgents after they came under fire at several locations across the state.
He claimed that the attacks were carried out by India-backed “Fitna al-Hindustan”, a government term for the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and other separatist groups.
Balochistan government spokesman Shahid Rind said most of the attacks were foiled. These came a day after the army said security forces raided two militant hideouts in the country’s southwest this week, killing 41 insurgents in separate gunfights.
Earlier on Saturday, officials said rebels destroyed railway lines, prompting Pakistan Railways to suspend train services from Balochistan to other parts of the country.
State Health Minister Bakht Muhammad Kakar said the attacks started almost simultaneously across the province.
He said two police officers were killed in a grenade attack on a police vehicle in the provincial capital Quetta. The government declared an emergency in all hospitals.
Dozens of rioters also attacked a prison in Mastung district, freeing more than 30 inmates, police said. Police said that in other attacks, militants tried to attack the provincial headquarters of paramilitary forces in the Nushki region, but the attack was repelled.
According to local officials, rebels threw grenades at the office of a government administrator in the Dalbandin district, but the quick response of security forces forced them to flee.
Police said attacks on security posts in Balincha, Tump and Kharan districts were foiled, while in Pasni and Gwadar, insurgents tried to kidnap passengers traveling in buses on highways.
Kakar also blamed the violence on the BLA, which is banned in Pakistan and designated as a terrorist organization by the United States. It has been behind a number of attacks in recent years, and Pakistan says the group has received support from India, a charge New Delhi denies.
Baluch separatist groups and the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, have intensified their attacks in Pakistan in recent months.
Balochistan has long been the scene of rebellions by separatist groups seeking independence from Pakistan’s central government in Islamabad.
