Internet/Hyderabad, Aug 13 (Maxim News): Pakistan has conducted a fresh round of airstrikes in Balochistan amid a rise in insurgent attacks, sources told CNN-News18.
Top intelligence sources said Pakistani strikes in Surab and Gwadar killed at least 21 civilians, including women and children.
The attacks came shortly after the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed it had killed at least 32 Pakistani soldiers in attacks this month.
Moreover, the BLA mounted overnight attacks as Pakistani airstrikes continued, targeting police and military personnel in at least six locations, according to media report. The casualties from the overnight attacks were not immediately known.
Earlier on Wednesday, Pakistani authorities said security forces had killed 10 insurgents in clashes in Balochistan. They further said a botched car bomb detonated prematurely, killing at least 11 people: eight terrorists rigging the explosives and three people in a nearby home.
As Pakistan conducted airstrikes in the province, the BLA launched six attacks, primarily targeting police and military personnel, according to a media report. .
BLA members attacked and destroyed a police station in a midnight bombing in Chagai district, killing three security personnel; attacked a Pakistani military camp in Jhao; attacked a security forces convoy on the Khuzdar RCD Highway; ambushed military vehicles in the nearby town of Wadh; attacked a security checkpoint in the Manguchar Bazaar area; and ambushed commercial vehicles and hijacked a truck in Yakmach.
Pakistan’s south-western province of Balochistan, home to the ethnic minority Baloch community, has witnessed a decades-old self-determination movement. Baloch nationalists consider Pakistani rule illegitimate as they say that the region’s accession to Pakistan was made under duress. Some groups within the movement, such as the BLA, have taken up arms to pursue an insurgency aimed at freeing the province from Pakistan’s control.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province and is rich in natural resources. But it remains the country’s poorest province as its natural wealth has not brought prosperity to local communities. The locals have long accused the federal government of pursuing an exploitative model in which the province’s resources are used to enrich the rest of the country. They have also accused Pakistan’s Punjabi elite of ethnic discrimination and persecution in the province.(Maxim News)
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