ISLAMABAD: Seven militants were killed in two separate counter-terror operations in southwestern Pakistan on June 2, the military’s media wing said on Tuesday as Islamabad battles insurgency in its Balochistan province.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, said five militants were killed during an intelligence-based operation in Balochistan’s Machh town located in the Kachhi district on June 2. The same day, it said two other militants were killed in a separate IBO in Margand area located in Balochistan’s Kalat District after security forces discovered a “terrorist” hideout.
The ISPR said weapons, ammunition and explosives were also recovered from the slain militants, who it alleged were actively involved in numerous militant activities.
“Security forces of Pakistan are determined to eliminate the menace of Indian-sponsored terrorism from the country,” the military’s media wing said. “And reaffirm the nation’s unwavering resolve to bring the perpetrators of Indian-sponsored terrorism and their facilitators to justice.”
Pakistan’s security forces have been battling an insurgency in Balochistan, the country’s most impoverished province, for years. Separatist militants have often targeted security forces, police, foreigners and ethnic Punjabi commuters and workers, who they see as “outsiders,” by wresting control of highways and remote towns in the area.
Pakistan has repeatedly rejected allegations by ethnic Baloch militant groups that it denies locals a share in Balochistan’s mineral and gas resources. The government points to various health, educational and development schemes in Balochistan that it supports.
Balochistan has seen a spike in militant violence in recent days. An IED blast killed two tribal leaders and injured seven others on Saturday in a remote mountainous town in Quetta district.
Pakistan’s military accuses India of funding and training ethnic Baloch separatist outfits, the most prominent of which is the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), to carry out attacks on Pakistani soil. Delhi rejects the allegations and accuses Pakistan of stoking militancy in the region of Kashmir that India administers.
In March, BLA fighters stormed a train in Balochistan and held hundreds of passengers hostage before the military launched an operation to rescue them.
