More than 250 people killed after separatist attacks in Pakistan: official

Pakistan

Islamabad –  More than 250 people have been killed in coordinated attacks launched by separatists across Pakistan’s Balochistan province since Saturday, a security official said on Wednesday, with fighting continuing as government forces pursue the militants.

Pakistan has been battling a Baloch separatist insurgency for decades, with frequent armed attacks on security forces, foreign nationals and non-local Pakistanis in the mineral-rich province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.A senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Wednesday that “197 terrorists have been killed in the ongoing counter-terrorism operations”.

He added that at least 36 civilians and 22 security personnel were killed during the coordinated attacks in restive Balochistan.

Sporadic clashes were still taking place in some districts, after militants stormed banks, jails, police stations and military installations over the weekend.

The chief minister of Balochistan, Sarfraz Bugti, told a news conference in Quetta on Sunday that all the districts under attack were cleared.

“We are chasing them, we will not let them go so easily,” he said.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the province’s most active militant separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement sent to AFP.

The group, which the United States has designated a terrorist organisation, said it had targeted military installations as well as police and civil administration officials in gun attacks and suicide bombings.

The BLA has intensified attacks on Pakistanis from other provinces working in the region in recent years, as well as foreign energy firms.

Last year, the separatists attacked a train with 450 passengers on board, sparking a deadly two-day siege.

The United Nations on Tuesday called the recent attacks “heinous and cowardly”.

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