Heavily armed terrorists launched three coordinated attacks, including one on a high-security prison, in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, leaving four law enforcement personnel and two civilians dead and triggering a gun-battle in which nine of the militants were also killed.
“The attacks took place on January 29 in Mach town, some 70 km from the provincial capital Quetta,” officials said.
A press release issued from the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) on January 30 said that on the night between January 29 and 30, “multiple terrorists, including suicide bombers, attacked Mach and Kolpur Complexes in Balochistan, which was effectively responded by law enforcement agencies (LEAs).” Nine terrorists were killed and three injured and captured by security forces when they tried to apparently penetrate the high-security central Mach Jail where some dangerous militants and death row prisoners are incarcerated.
The ISPR also confirmed the death of four security personnel and two civilians since Monday night. It said security forces in the vicinity were immediately mobilised and were carrying out an “ensuing operation”.
“Nine terrorists, including three suicide bombers, were “sent to hell till now” while three were injured,” the statement said. A senior police official earlier said at least 15 rockets were fired at the Central Mach Jail.
The banned separatist group the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) Majeed group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. After the attacks, a heavy gun-battle lasting several hours ensued between the security forces and the attackers who tried to retreat into the mountains.
The caretaker Balochistan Information Minister Jan Achakzai said that the final clearance operation in Mach is still under way. “The situation in the area has been stabilised,” Mr. Achakzai said on social media platform X.
Monday night’s attack against security forces is the deadliest by militants this year. Last year, in November, at least 14 soldiers were killed when militants ambushed them in the port town of Gwadar.
The attack was an apparent retaliation for Pakistani strikes on what the country said were insurgent hideouts in Iran earlier in January. The BLA threatened to launch attacks on security forces in Balochistan and elsewhere following Pakistan's January 18 strikes on their camps in Iran that left at least nine persons dead.
The strikes were made in response to an Iranian strike in Pakistan that appeared to target a different Baloch militant group with similar separatist goals. Pakistan's Balochistan province, as well as Iran's neighbouring Sistan-Baluchistan province, have faced a low-level insurgency by Baloch nationalists for more than two decades.
Although the government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in the province has persisted. Iran and Pakistan share a 900-km-border, largely lawless, across which smugglers and militants freely roam.
