ISLAMABAD: Security forces have killed eight suspected militants during intelligence-based operations in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, Pakistan’s military said on Sunday, as authorities continue a crackdown on insurgent violence in the restive region.

Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but least developed province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, and has been the site of a long-running separatist insurgency that has intensified in recent years.

Amid an uptick in militant violence, security forces foiled an attempt by militants to set up a roadblock in Quetta, killing five militants, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.

During a sanitization operation in Nushki district, Pakistani forces busted a hideout and killed two militants after an intense fire exchange. Another militant was gunned down in Khuzdar district, with 490 kilograms of explosives recovered from the site.

“Sanitization operations are being conducted to eliminate any other Indian-sponsored terrorist found in the area,” the ISPR said in a statement.

There was no immediate response from New Delhi to the statement.

It came amid a spike in attacks in Balochistan, along with kidnappings of civilians and government officials.

On Saturday, unidentified gunmen attacked a marble mining site in Khuzdar and kidnapped at least 18 local laborers, a senior police official said on Sunday. The attack came two days after the kidnapping of 20 police constables in the province.

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks and kidnappings in the region, where separatist militants have targeted foreign nationals, infrastructure projects, security forces, police and non-native Pakistanis.

The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.

Islamabad has frequently accused India of backing militant groups and Afghanistan of allowing the use of its soil for attacks in Pakistan’s western regions that border Afghanistan. New Delhi and Kabul deny this.