Pakistan’s military said on Monday that an army major was killed and four militants were eliminated during intelligence based operations in Balochistan, even as a separatist group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack near the coastal district of Gwadar, according to Dawn News.
The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, said security forces carried out operations in Shadi Kaur and Pasni in Gwadar district, as well as in Jattakabad in Kalat district. The operations were launched after reports of militant hideouts linked to “Baloch Insurgents”.
In the first operation, conducted on October 18 in Jattakabad, troops killed four militants and recovered a large quantity of weapons and ammunition, according to ISPR.
In the second operation, security forces carried out clearance operations in Shadi Kaur near Pasni. During the action, Major Wajahat Waheed, a 34 year old officer from Lahore who was leading the team, was killed in an improvised explosive device attack.
The military said sanitisation operations would continue in the area and pledged that its counterterrorism campaign, carried out under the “Azm-e-Istehkam” framework, would continue “at full pace.” It also repeated its claim that foreign sponsored terrorism remained a threat to Pakistan.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), however, gave a different account of the Pasni attack. Its spokesperson, Jeeyand Baloch, said the group’s fighters had targeted a military convoy with a remotely detonated bomb in the Kabri area of Shadi Kaur. The BLA claimed that seven Pakistani soldiers, including Major Wajahat, were killed when one of the convoy’s vehicles was destroyed.
There was no immediate response from the Pakistani military to the BLA’s claim, and the two sides gave sharply different death tolls.
The violence comes amid a wider surge in militant activity across Balochistan. A day earlier, security forces said they had killed eight “Baloch Insurgent” in operations in Quetta, Nushki and Khuzdar districts. Earlier this month, five militants were reported killed in Mastung, while officials said dozens of suspected militants had been arrested across the province.
According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, terrorist attacks in Balochistan rose from 83 in July to 89 in August, an increase of seven per cent. The group described Balochistan as the country’s most terrorism affected province.
The continuing bloodshed has also deepened political anger. Balochistan National Party chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal said military operations had failed to bring peace to the province. “Today, Balochistan is burning, and its youth have taken to the mountains,” he said.
Mengal also criticised the treatment of elected representatives in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saying ordinary people were being made to feel powerless. His remarks reflect a growing sense of frustration in a province where security operations, separatist violence and political grievances continue to feed one another.
For now, the death of Major Wajahat stands as another reminder that Balochistan’s conflict is far from over.
