QUETTA: At least five civilians were killed and 11 others sustained injuries after separatist militants ambushed a security convoy in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, a senior government official said late Thursday.
Balochistan has been the site of a long-running separatist insurgency that has intensified in recent years. The region has witnessed a sharp surge in attacks by separatists as well as religiously motivated militant groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in recent weeks.
The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent of a number of separatist groups operating in the region, claimed responsibility for the latest attack that targeted the security convoy in Kand Umrani, a mountainous area located some 25 kilometers from Balochistan’s Mastung city.
“Five civilians, who were local residents of the area, were killed in the ambush on security forces’ convoy,” a government official in Mastung, who requested not to be named, told Arab News.
“Eleven people sustained injuries and were later shifted to Ghous Bakhsh Raisani Hospital,” he said, declining to share how many of them were security personnel.
This is the third attack on Pakistani security and law enforcement personnel in Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, in less than two weeks.
At least 11 Pakistan Army soldiers were killed in Lasbela district, while 27 policemen were killed in Ziarat in a series of coordinated attacks in the region this month, authorities said.
The spate of attacks prompted Pakistani military to launch ‘Operation Shaban’ against militants on July 5. At least 129 militants have since been killed in the ongoing offensive and intelligence-based operations.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last week 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 frequently accuses 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 deny the allegation.
