Pakistan military says insurgents killed 18 abducted policemen and 11 soldiers in separate attacks

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Insurgents killed 18 police officers who had been abducted earlier this week and 11 soldiers in a separate attack in restive southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, the military said.

It was the latest escalation of violence in a region where insurgents have stepped up attacks on security forces and civilians.

The latest attacks bring the death toll since Monday to 42 people, most of them soldiers and police officers, military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry said.

At a televised news conference, he said security forces had also killed 54 insurgents in multiple operations during the same period.

According to Chaudhry, insurgents have carried out three major attacks across the province since Monday.

In one of the attacks, on the outskirts of Quetta, insurgents this week targeted civilians, killing four people, he said. He vowed that security forces would continue operations against the insurgents and those supporting them.

“We will chase you, we will hurt you,” Chaudhry said, and added that many Afghans were also behind in the recent attacks across the country. “We will take on each and every terrorist, their facilitators, those who harbor them, those who nourish then and those who provide them bases, wherever they are located,” he said.

Chaudhry said the 18 officers had been held captive since late Monday, when dozens of militants attacked a police post in Ziarat district in Balochistan province, killing nine other police officers. He said the attackers belonged to what the government calls “Fitna al-Khawarij,” a term it uses for the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army, or BLA, which Pakistan alleges is backed by India. India denies supporting insurgent groups in Pakistan.

The 11 soldiers killed Wednesday died when insurgents ambushed their vehicle on a highway in Balochistan, he said.

His remarks came days after the BLA claimed responsibility for a wave of attacks on security forces in Balochistan, where the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, also maintain a strong presence.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least populous province, has long been the scene of a separatist insurgency as well as attacks by the Pakistani Taliban — a separate militant group from the Afghan Taliban, although the two are allies.

TTP has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, and Pakistan often accuses Kabul of backing TTP, BLA and other insurgents. Kabul denies the change, however.

Since last year, Pakistan has carried out multiple strikes along the border and inside Afghanistan, targeting what it says are hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban.