Nine terrorists were killed in two separate intelligence-based operations in Balochistan’s Kachhi and Wadh districts, the military’s media wing said on Wednesday. In a statement, Inter-Services Public Relations said that on 26 October, security forces conducted the operations in the two districts on the reported presence of terrorists belonging to Fitna al-Hindustan. The state has designated Balochistan-based terrorist groups as Fitna al-Hindustan to highlight India’s alleged role in terrorism and destabilisation across Pakistan, according to the report. In the first operation, in Kachhi, a terrorist hideout was destroyed and seven terrorists were eliminated in an exchange of fire. Weapons and ammunition were recovered from the slain terrorists, the statement said. In Wadh, security forces tracked and intercepted terrorist movement and killed two terrorists in an exchange of fire. Weapons and ammunition were also recovered there. Sanitisation operations are being conducted to eliminate any other India-sponsored terrorist found in the area, the statement added, and a relentless counterterrorism campaign under the vision Azm-i-Istehkam will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid tribute to security forces and commended their professional capabilities. The president said conspiracies of terrorists’ foreign patrons and their local facilitators will be thwarted, and that the nation stands shoulder to shoulder with its security forces and law enforcement agencies. The prime minister said terrorists seeking to undermine Pakistan’s security and peace would never succeed in their nefarious designs. The statement, as reported, does not name the individuals killed, nor does it report any casualties among security forces or civilians in either operation. Those details, if released later, would be needed for a fuller account. The account given here follows the ISPR statement as reported, and the designation of the group and the allegation of foreign sponsorship are the military’s characterisation, not independently verified findings in the report. Balochistan has seen repeated intelligence-based operations in recent months, with security forces targeting hideouts in remote districts where militants are reported to move between settlements and rugged terrain. Kachhi, in central Balochistan, and Wadh, in Khuzdar district, are both areas where such operations have been reported before. The operations were carried out on 26 October and reported on 28-29 October. No further operation in either district was announced in the same statement. A sanitisation operation, in the sense used in such statements, is a follow-up search of the area after an exchange of fire, intended to check for other militants, weapons or hideouts that may remain. The statement does not say how long the sanitisation operations in Kachhi and Wadh will last, nor does it give a timeline for any further announcement. Readers following security news in Balochistan will know that initial ISPR statements are often brief, giving district names, casualty figures and recovered material, while fuller details, if they are released at all, come later. Until such an update appears, the figures in this article — seven killed in Kachhi and two in Wadh — are the complete casualty account given for these two operations, and no other deaths or injuries should be added to them from other incidents in the province on other dates. Sources: Inter-Services Public Relations statement as reported by Dawn.
Nine Killed in Two Balochistan Intelligence-Based Operations, ISPR Says
