Pakistan Deploys Helicopters and Drones to End Three-Day Standoff with Separatist Militants; 58 Dead
Pakistan’s security forces have deployed helicopters and drones to retake a southwestern town from separatist insurgents after a three-day battle, police said Wednesday, as the death toll from weekend violence rose to 58.
The unrest began Saturday when the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an ethnic separatist group, launched a coordinated series of attacks across Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province.
The wave of assaults brought the region to a near standstill, with security forces exchanging fire with insurgents in over a dozen locations, killing 197 militants.
“I thought the roof and walls of my house were going to blow up,” said Robina Ali, a resident living near the main administrative building in Quetta, where a powerful morning blast shook the area.
In one of the largest operations in recent years, BLA fighters targeted schools, banks, markets, and security installations, killing more than 22 security personnel and 36 civilians, officials said.
In the desert town of Nushki, home to roughly 50,000 people, insurgents seized control of the police station and other security facilities, triggering a three-day standoff.
Seven police officers were killed before security forces regained control late Monday. Operations against the BLA continue elsewhere in the province.
“More troops were sent to Nushki. Helicopters and drones were used against the militants,” said one security official.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and poorest province, borders Iran and Afghanistan. The mineral-rich region hosts major Chinese investments, including the Gwadar deepwater port, and has long been plagued by an insurgency led by ethnic Baloch separatists demanding greater autonomy and a larger share of local resources.
The BLA claimed on Tuesday that it had killed 280 soldiers during its “Hero of Black Storm” operation, although the group provided no evidence to support the claim.
Officials said the weekend attacks began at 4 a.m. Saturday with suicide bombings in Nushki and the fishing port of Pasni, followed by gun and grenade attacks in 11 additional locations, including Quetta.
Insurgents temporarily seized six district administration offices and advanced to within one kilometer of the provincial chief minister’s office in Quetta.
