QUETTA: Unidentified militants attacked a vehicle of the Anti-Terrorist Force (ATF) and killed three officials in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, a senior police official said on Sunday.
Pakistan’s largest province of Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan and is home to major China-led projects such as a strategic port and a gold and copper mine, has been the site of a decades-long separatist insurgency by ethnic Baloch militants.
The militants ambushed the ATF vehicle in Zhob, a remote district bordering the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, late on Saturday night, according to Superintendent of Police Saboor Agha. The ATF members were en route to Dera Ismail Khan after handing over a prisoner to authorities in Zhob.
“One soldier was killed at the ambush site, while two others succumbed to gunshot wounds on their to provincial headquarters of Quetta,” SP Agha told Arab News. “A fourth soldier injured in the attack is being treated in Quetta.”
Saturday’s attack occurred on the Zhob-Dera Ismail Khan highway close to Balochistan’s border with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where militants, particularly from the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have intensified attacks against security forces in recent months.
Last month, separatist militants hit several civil and military targets in a string of coordinated attacks in Balochistan, killing more than 50 people. The attacks prompted Pakistani military to gun down a dozen militants in separate operations in the province.
The separatists accuse the central government of exploiting Balochistan’s mineral and gas resources. The Pakistani state denies the allegation and says it is working to uplift the region through development initiatives.
Islamabad says militants mainly associated with the banned TTP frequently launch attacks from Afghanistan and has even blamed Kabul’s Afghan Taliban rulers for facilitating anti-Pakistan militants. Kabul denies the charges.
Three counter-terrorism officials killed in militant attack in Pakistan’s Balochistan
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Three counter-terrorism officials killed in militant attack in Pakistan’s Balochistan
- Militant ambushed an Anti-Terrorist Force vehicle in Balochistan’s Zhob district late on Saturday night
- Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has been the site of a decades-long separatist insurgency
At UN, Pakistan warns India’s suspension of water-sharing treaty carries security implications
- Brokered in 1960, Indus Waters Treaty divides control of Indus basin rivers between India and Pakistan
- Pakistan urges UN to ensure prevention of unilateral suspensions, enforcement of international treaties
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad warned the international community this week that any unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) by India carries with it humanitarian, peace and security implications.
India last year announced it was holding the IWT, mediated by the World Bank in 1960, “in abeyance” amid increasing political tensions with Islamabad. The IWT divides control of the Indus basin rivers between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
It grants Pakistan rights to the Indus basin’s western rivers — Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab — for irrigation, drinking, and non-consumptive uses like hydropower, while India controls the eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej — for unrestricted use but must not significantly alter their flow. India can use the western rivers for limited purposes such as power generation and irrigation, without storing or diverting large volumes, according to the agreement.
Speaking at the “Arria Formula Meeting of the Security Council on Upholding the Sanctity of Treaties for the Maintenance of International Peace and Security” on Saturday, Ahmad noted the IWT was regarded as one of the most resilient water-sharing treaties that had stood the test of time, crises and political tensions.
“Any unilateral disruption to established water-sharing arrangements carries humanitarian, environmental, and peace-and-security implications, particularly for downstream 240 million people of Pakistan,” he said.
“When the lifelines of millions are placed under unilateral discretion, the risks are not hypothetical — they are real and immediate.”
The Pakistani envoy reiterated that the treaty was not a “bilateral concern” but a test case for the international system. He said if a treaty designed to prevent disputes or conflicts is disregarded unilaterally, “then no agreement is truly insulated from politics or all kinds of machinations.”
“Borders, demilitarized zones, trade corridors, and humanitarian arrangements all become more fragile,” Ahmad noted.
He underscored that the UN and the Security Council have a vital role to play, which includes the prevention of unilateral suspensions and enforcement of treaties.
“Compliance with treaties must therefore be regarded as a strategic imperative for conflict prevention and resolution,” he said.
Pakistan has warned India that it will not let New Delhi stop or divert the flow of its rivers. Islamabad said last year it would consider any move on India’s behalf to hinder the flow of its waters as “an act of war.”
The two countries engaged in the worst fighting between them in decades in May last year after India blamed Pakistan for being involved in a militant attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir. Islamabad denied it was involved and called for a credible probe into the incident.
India and Pakistan pounded each other with missiles, drones, jets and exchanged artillery fire for four days before Washington brokered a ceasefire on May 10.
