Coordinated attacks by Baloch separatists kill 10 security personnel in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Separatists from Pakistan’s Balochistan province claimed responsibility for nearly a dozen coordinated attacks across southern Pakistan early Saturday that targeted a high-security prison, police stations and paramilitary installations. At least 10 security personnel 58 insurgents were killed in the gunbattles, authorities said.

Though Baloch separatists and the Pakistani Taliban frequently target security forces in Balochistan and elsewhere in the country, coordinated attacks on this scale are rare.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement that 10 security officers were killed. He praised the forces for killing dozens of insurgents after coming under fire at multiple locations across the province. Authorities said nearly 100 militants have been killed across Balochistan over the past 48 hours, including 58 on Saturday.

The Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, claimed responsibility the attacks, during which some of the banks were also robbed. It released videos showing female fighters taking part in the attacks, apparently part of a propaganda to highlight the role of women among the militants.

Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the Balochistan government, said most of the attacks were foiled. They came a day after the military said security forces this week raided two militant hideouts in the country’s southwest, killing 41 insurgents in separate gunbattles.

The provincial chief minister, Sarfraz Bugti, wrote on X that security forces were chasing the insurgents. He said at least 700 insurgents were killed by security forces in the past year.

According to Balochistan police and government officials, at least 37 assailants were killed initially and 21 more were traced and shot dead. Earlier Saturday, authorities said that insurgents destroyed rail tracks, prompting Pakistan Railways to suspend train services from Balochistan to other parts of the country.

The attacks began almost simultaneously across the province, provincial Health Minister Bakht Muhammad Kakar said. He said two police officers were killed in a grenade attack on a police vehicle in Quetta, the provincial capital. The government declared an emergency at all hospitals.

Dozens of insurgents also attacked a prison in Mastung district, freeing more than 30 inmates, police said. In other attacks, militants attempted to storm the provincial headquarters of paramilitary forces in Nushki district, but the attack was repelled, police said.

Insurgents hurled grenades at the office of a government administrator in Dalbandin district, but a swift response by security forces forced them to flee, according to local authorities. Attacks on security posts in Balincha, Tump and Kharan districts were thwarted, while in Pasni and Gwadar, insurgents attempted to abduct passengers traveling on buses along highways, police said.

Kakar also blamed the violence on the BLA, which is banned in Pakistan and designated a terrorist organization by the United States. It has been behind numerous attacks in recent years, and Pakistan says the group enjoys the backing from India, a charge New Delhi denies. Pakistan has repeatedly said that Baloch separatists, the Pakistani Taliban and other militants are using Afghan soil to launch attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies the claim.

Baloch separatist groups and the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, have intensified attacks in Pakistan in recent months. The TTP is a separate group but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, who returned to power in August 2021.

Balochistan has long been the site of an insurgency by separatist groups seeking independence from Pakistan’s central government in Islamabad.

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Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Babar Dogar in Lahore, Pakistan, and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, contributed to this report.