Pakistan’s military said Saturday that multiple suicide and gun attacks by “terrorists” across the restive southwestern province of Balochistan killed 33 people, including civilians, while security forces responding to the violence killed 92 assailants.
Analysts described it as the deadliest single day for militants in decades.
During the attacks, Baloch insurgents targeted civilians, a high-security prison, police stations and paramilitary installations. Eighteen civilians, 15 security personnel and 92 insurgents were killed, the military said.
Though Baloch separatists and the Pakistani Taliban frequently target security forces in Balochistan and elsewhere in the country, coordinated attacks on this scale are rare. Authorities said at least 133 militants have been killed across Balochistan over the past 48 hours, including 92 on Saturday.
The military and Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the attackers had the backing of India.
There was no immediate response from New Delhi, which has denied such allegations previously.
The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, claimed responsibility for the suicide and gun attacks, during which some of the banks were robbed and a police station and dozens of vehicles torched. The BLA released videos showing female fighters taking part in the attacks, apparently part of propaganda efforts to highlight the role of women among the militants.
Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the Balochistan government, said most of the attacks were foiled. They came a day after the military said security forces this week raided two militant hideouts in the country’s southwest, killing 41 insurgents in separate gunbattles.
The provincial chief minister, Sarfraz Bugti, wrote on X that security forces were chasing the insurgents. He said at least 700 insurgents were killed by security forces in the past year. Earlier Saturday, authorities said that insurgents destroyed rail tracks, prompting Pakistan Railways to suspend train services from Balochistan to other parts of the country.
