Pakistani military and police authorities say 18 paramilitary troops and two dozen militants were killed overnight in fighting in the restive Balochistan Province in the country’s southwest.
Militants blocked a highway near the town of Mangochar and attacked a vehicle "carrying unarmed Frontier Corps paramilitaries,” according to local police officials. A police official said, the attack was carried out by up 80 “armed assailants.”
The military said in a statement on February 1 that three paramilitaries sustained serious injuries in the attack.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a statement condemning the attack, which was claimed by the Baloch National Army separatist group.
The military vowed that “the perpetrators, facilitators, and abettors of this heinous and cowardly act, will be brought to justice."
Mineral-rich but impoverished Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, has been the scene of ethnic, sectarian, and separatist violence for decades, with Baloch separatist groups and an array of Islamist militants operating in the region.
Members of the province’s ethnic Baluch minority say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government.
Six people were killed in a bombing in January, claimed by the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as authorities reported an uptick in violence in recent months.
The BLA often targets Pakistani security forces, civilians, and foreigners, most notably Chinese working on multibillion dollar projects in Pakistan. The group accuses outsiders of exploiting the province’s resources while excluding the local people.
In November 2024, the militant group claimed responsibility for a bombing at the main railway station in the provincial capital, Quetta that killed 26 people, including 14 soldiers.
The group has also claimed it was behind coordinated attacks by dozens of assailants in August that killed at least 39 people, one of the deadliest assaults in the region. The attacks prompted retaliatory operations by security forces.
