100 Militants Killed In Balochistan After Deadly Attacks, Says Pakistan

Pakistani security forces have killed more than 100 suspected militants during counterterrorism operations carried out over the past 40 hours in the troubled southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said on Sunday, following deadly coordinated attacks that killed dozens of people.

The operations came a day after suicide bombings and gun assaults struck several locations in the province on Saturday, leaving at least 33 people dead, most of them civilians.

Authorities said the security raids began early Saturday across multiple areas of Balochistan. In the violence, 18 civilians, including five women and three children were killed, along with 15 members of the security forces.

Speaking to reporters in Quetta, Balochistan’s provincial capital, Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said troops and police responded swiftly to the attacks, killing 145 members of what he described as “Fitna al-Hindustan” a term the government uses for the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which Pakistan accuses of being backed by India.

Bugti said the number of militants killed over the two-day operation was the highest recorded in decades.

“The bodies of these 145 killed terrorists are in our custody, and some of them are Afghan nationals,” he said. According to him, the attackers had planned to take hostages after storming key government offices but were stopped before reaching Quetta’s city centre.

The chief minister spoke alongside senior government official Hamza Shafqat, who oversees security operations in the province, and praised the military, police and paramilitary forces for repelling what authorities described as a coordinated and well-planned assault.

The violence erupted in Balochistan, a vast but sparsely populated region rich in natural gas, minerals and other resources. The province has long been plagued by an insurgency, with separatist groups demanding greater autonomy or independence from Pakistan’s central government.

Pakistan has been seeking to attract foreign investment into the region’s mining and minerals sector. In September 2025, a United States-based metals company signed a $500 million investment agreement with the Pakistani government, weeks after the U.S. designated the BLA and its armed wing as foreign terrorist organisations.

Bugti accused both India and Afghanistan of backing the attackers, alleging that senior leaders of the BLA were operating from Afghan territory. India and Afghanistan have repeatedly denied such claims.

He also accused Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government of failing to uphold its commitment under the 2020 Doha agreement, which bars the use of Afghan soil for attacks against other countries.

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have remained high since October, when Pakistan carried out airstrikes on what it described as militant hideouts inside Afghanistan, killing dozens of suspected insurgents.

Bugti further alleged that militants attacked the home of a Baloch labourer in the coastal city of Gwadar, killing five women and three children — an act he strongly condemned. He said the attackers had also planned to seize hostages in Quetta’s high-security zone but were thwarted by security forces who had prior intelligence about the plot.

“We were aware of their plans, and our forces were prepared,” he said.

The Baloch Liberation Army is banned in Pakistan and has carried out numerous attacks in recent years, frequently targeting security personnel, Chinese interests, and major infrastructure projects linked to the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Authorities said security operations in the province were continuing to prevent further attacks and restore calm.