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PAKISTANI security forces were conducting wide-ranging operations on Monday to track down separatist militants after a series of coordinated attacks across Balochistan province left nearly 50 people dead and brought daily life in the region to a standstill.
The weekend assaults, described by authorities as among the largest ever carried out by the Baloch Liberation Army, targeted almost a dozen locations including schools, banks, hospitals, markets and security installations.
According to the military, 17 members of the security forces and 31 civilians were killed in the attacks.
Pakistan’s interior ministry said security forces have killed 177 Baloch Liberation Army fighters over the past three days in ongoing clashes. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said 22 militants were killed overnight in various parts of the province, bringing the total number of militants killed to 177.
“Security forces, police and intelligence agencies thwarted the nefarious intentions of terrorists by taking timely and effective action,” Naqvi said in a statement.
“The Indian agents and their facilitators will be completely eliminated.”
The government and military have accused India of supporting the separatist group, a claim New Delhi rejected on Sunday. India’s foreign office said Pakistan should instead address the “long-standing demands of its people in the region”.
The allegations have raised concerns over renewed tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, who were involved in their worst fighting in decades in May.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but poorest province, has been gripped by a decades-long insurgency by ethnic Baloch groups demanding greater autonomy and a larger share of revenues from the region’s natural resources.
The banned Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were part of a coordinated operation codenamed Herof, or “black storm”, aimed at security forces across the province.
The group alleged it had killed 84 security personnel and captured 18 others, claims that could not be independently verified by Reuters.
The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those assertions.
Pakistan’s junior interior minister Talal Chaudhry said the attackers had blended in with the public before striking.
“Attackers dressed as ordinary civilians entered hospitals, schools, banks and markets,” he said, adding that militants “indiscriminately targeted ordinary people working in shops” and had used civilians as human shields.
On Sunday, the chief minister of Balochistan said security forces had killed 145 militants in a 40-hour battle, underscoring the scale of the violence and the intensity of the military response. - February 2, 2026