QUETTA: Five soldiers, among them an army major, were killed during a sanitization operation in the southwestern Balochistan province against “Indian-backed terrorists,” the Pakistani military’s media wing said on Wednesday.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said Pakistan Army and the paramilitary Frontier Corps Balochistan troops launched a sanitization operation in Nosham area in the Barkhan district to eliminate “terrorists of Indian-backed Fitna Al Hindustan.”
The military uses the term “Fitna Al Hindustan” to describe separatist Baloch militants in the southwestern province. It accuses India of backing these groups, charges that New Delhi denies.
“During the operation, a group of terrorists was located and engaged by troops,” the ISPR said. “During the fire exchange, seven terrorists of Indian backed Fitna Al Hindustan were sent to hell.”
It said weapons, ammunition and explosives were recovered from the slain militants.
“Sanitization operation in the surroundings continue to eliminate any other Indian sponsored terrorists present in the area,” the ISPR said.
Meanwhile, a police official told Arab News earlier that the five soldiers were killed after they were targeted in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast. He said one suffered critical injuries.
District Police Officer Barkhan Saad Afridi said an army artillery unit, traveling from Nosham to the Loralai Garrison, was targeted in the IED blast around 2:10 p.m.
“Five soldiers of the Pakistan Army, including a major rank officer, were killed in the latest targeted blast while one received critical injuries,” Afridi told Arab News.
“The injured soldier was evacuated from the area for medical treatment.”
BALOCHISTAN INSURGENCY
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. However, ethnic Baloch separatist militants, the most prominent among them the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), have increased attacks against security forces in recent months.
Five paramilitary troops were killed in Dukki district in March when a roadside blast targeted a convoy of Frontier Corps Balochistan force that was returning from an anti-drugs campaign.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but most impoverished province, has been the site of a long-running insurgency that has intensified in recent years.
Separatists accuse Pakistan’s federal government and the army of usurping the province’s mineral and gas resources. Both deny the allegations, vowing to eliminate militants from the country.
The blast takes place amid a recent surge in militant attacks in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
A blast at a crowded market in the Lakki Marwat district on Tuesday killed at least nine people, while 15 police constables were killed in Bannu district last week after militants targeted a police checkpost with a car bombing and subsequent ambush.
Pakistan blames Afghanistan for sheltering militant groups that launch attacks against it. Kabul denies the allegations and urges Islamabad to resolve its security challenges internally.
