QUETTA: Security forces have recovered bodies of four serving and retired security personnel, who had been kidnapped and shot dead by unidentified militants in recent weeks, in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, a senior government official said late Wednesday.
Balochistan has been the site of a long-running separatist insurgency that has intensified in recent years. Pakistani forces have also been battling religiously motivated militant groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the region.
Bodies of the four deceased security personnel, who had been abducted in June and July, were found in Shaban, a mountainous area near the provincial capital of Quetta, during a major security operation that followed the killing of 32 people, including 27 policemen, in TTP attacks in Quetta and Ziarat districts last week.
“The bodies were identified as Zubair Ahmed, inspector of ASF (Airports Security Force), Sepoy Khalil ur Rehman, who served in Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), retired army soldier Muhammad Sadeeq and Sepoy Fareed Ahmed,” a senior government official, who requested not to be named, told Arab News.
ASF Inspector Ahmed traveled from Islamabad to visit his family in Quetta on vacations before being abducted on June 21, according to Ahmed’s family.
No group claimed responsibility for the kidnappings and murders of the deceased individuals.
The development comes amid an ongoing military offensive, codenamed as ‘Operaton Shaban,’ and other intelligence-based operations in Balochistan, which were launched on July 5 after a spate of militant attacks in the mineral-rich province. The Pakistani military says it has so far killed 126 militants.
Last week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif blamed Pakistan’s “eastern neighbor,” a reference to India, for backing the attacks in Balochistan, where China has been building a deep-sea port in Gwadar on the Arabian Sea and has made huge investments under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Islamabad has repeatedly accused India of supporting and Afghanistan of providing safe havens to separatist and other militants who carry out attacks in the mineral-rich region. New Delhi and Kabul have consistently denied this.
