34 suspected militants killed in Balochistan raids

QUETTA: Pakistani paramilitary troops claim to have killed at least 34 suspected militants during a three day operation in Balochistan, the government said on Saturday.

“The operation concluded today in which a huge quantity of arms and ammunition was also recovered from their camps, which were destroyed by the security forces,” said Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti, the provincial home minister at a press conference.

Bugti said those killed included Abdul Nabi Bangulzai, allegedly a “main commander” of the United Baloch Army, one of several armed separatist groups fighting Pakistani forces in the province.

Balochistan has seen increasing violence since the start of the latest iteration of an ethnic Baloch separatist insurgency nearly a decade ago.

Attacks on security convoys and personnel by separatist fighters are common, as are retaliatory operations by Pakistani security forces.

The latest three-day operation took place in Kalat district, about 200 kilometres south of provincial capital Quetta.

The group targeted included fighters involved in an attack on a provincial judge in 2001, as well as a bus attack that saw 22 people killed last year, Bugti said.

In a separate incident, also on Saturday, six people were killed in an attack in the Prom area of Balochistan’s Panjgur district, a local government official said.

Around 20 men, armed with heavy weaponry, attacked a house in the district, killing six people, including a woman, said Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Qambrani, the deputy commissioner for the district.

No group had yet claimed responsibility for that attack.

Balochistan is set to see a large share of the $46 billion China is investing in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which culminates in the consolidation of a major port at Gwadar, in the southern part of the province.

Security has been a serious concern for CPEC projects all along the route from the Pakistan-China border in the north to Balochistan in the south.

Separatist groups in Balochistan have threatened to attack any CPEC projects in the province.