Pakistan’s military said on Saturday that 33 people, including civilians, were killed in multiple suicide and gun attacks by “terrorists” across the restive southwestern province of Balochistan, and security forces responding to the violence killed 92 assailants.
Analysts said it was the deadliest day for extremists in decades.
During the attack, Baloch rebels targeted civilians, maximum security prisons, police stations, and paramilitary facilities. According to the military, 18 civilians, 15 security personnel and 92 rebels were killed.
Baloch separatists and the Pakistani Taliban frequently target security forces in Balochistan and other parts of the country, but coordinated attacks on this scale are rare. Authorities said at least 133 militants were killed across Balochistan in the past 48 hours, including 92 on Saturday.
The military and Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the attackers had Indian support.
There was no immediate response from New Delhi, which had previously denied such claims.
The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the suicide and gun attacks, which included robbing some banks and setting a police station and dozens of vehicles on fire. The BLA released a video showing female fighters taking part in the attack, which appears to be part of a propaganda effort to emphasize the role of women in armed groups.
Balochistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind said most of the attacks were thwarted. They came a day after the military said security forces raided two militant hideouts in the country’s southwest this week, killing 41 militants in separate gunfights.
The state’s chief minister, Sarfraz Bugti, wrote to X that security forces were pursuing the rebels. He said at least 700 rebels have been killed by security forces over the past year. Earlier on Saturday, Pakistan Railways suspended train services from Balochistan to other parts of the country after authorities said rebels had destroyed the tracks.
Targets were police, prisons, paramilitary forces, and passengers.
According to state Health Minister Bakht Muhammad Kakar, the attacks began almost simultaneously across the state. He said two police officers were killed in a grenade attack on a police vehicle in the provincial capital Quetta. The government declared a state of emergency in all hospitals.
Police said dozens of insurgents also attacked a prison in Mastung district, freeing more than 30 inmates. In another attack, police said insurgents tried to storm the paramilitary state headquarters in the Nushki district, but the attack was repulsed.
According to local authorities, the militants threw a grenade at a government administration office in Dalbandin district, but were forced to flee after security forces responded quickly. Police said attacks on security posts in Barincha, Tampu and Kallang districts were thwarted, while in Pasni and Gwadar districts militants attempted to kidnap passengers traveling in buses on the highway.
The BLA is banned in Pakistan and listed as a terrorist organization by the United States. It has carried out numerous attacks in recent years, and Pakistan claims the group is backed by India, a charge that New Delhi denies. Pakistan has repeatedly said that Baloch separatists, the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups are using Afghan soil to carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies the allegations.
Abdullah Khan, managing director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, told The Associated Press that “never before have so many terrorists affiliated with the BLA and other organizations been killed in a single day” in Balochistan.
Baloch separatist groups and the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have stepped up attacks in Pakistan in recent months. The TTP is a separate group, but it is allied with the Afghan Taliban, which returned to power in August 2021.
Balochistan has long been the scene of an insurgency by separatist groups seeking independence from Pakistan’s central government in Islamabad.
