By Saleem Ahmed
QUETTA, Pakistan, Jan 31 (Reuters) – At least 67 militants were killed on Saturday as they battled Pakistan’s security forces in multiple cities across the southwestern province of Balochistan, four security officials told Reuters.
Some 10 police and security personnel and 11 civilians were also killed during the orchestrated militant attacks, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Twenty-four police officers were injured.
The military’s media wing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, in a statement, condemned the attacks and praised security forces for repelling them, saying they had killed dozens of militants.
The attacks came a day after Pakistan’s military said it killed 41 militants in separate raids in Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan and has faced a decades-long separatist insurgency.
The banned separatist group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attacks, saying it had launched them simultaneously across the province. The BLA said it had killed 84 Pakistan security personnel.
Security officials said armed men launched attacks in several urban areas, including the provincial capital Quetta and the port city of Gwadar, prompting operations by the army, police and counterterrorism units.
Hospitals were placed on emergency footing in some districts, officials said.
MIGRANT WORKERS TARGETED IN GWADAR
In Gwadar, militants attacked a camp accommodating migrant workers, killing 11 people, Atta-ur-Rehman, a senior police officer said, revising an earlier death toll of five. Those killed included five men, three women and three children..
Security forces killed six militants in Gwadar after responding to the attack, he said.
Officials said the situation was critical in Noshki, a district of Balochistan, after militants abducted the area’s top civil administrator. He said in a social media video that he was in the custody of the militants. Reuters could not independently verify the video.
Armed men briefly blocked roads in parts of Quetta and a blast was heard near a high-security area, authorities said, though they later said the situation had been brought under control.
Security officials said in text messages that forces had responded effectively to the attacks and that clearance operations were still underway.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but poorest province and has faced a decades-long insurgency by ethnic Baloch militant groups. Pakistan says the violence is backed by foreign actors, a charge denied by India.
(Reporting by Saleem Ahmed in Quetta; additional reporting by Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad ; writing by Ariba ShahidEditing by Gareth Jones)
