Pakistan has launched an all-out military operation against separatist outfits in the restive southwestern province of Balochistan following a recent spate of deadly attacks. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called a meeting on Tuesday with the premier political and military leadership to approve the operation, his office said.
Details of the operation remain classified, including whether it will comprise ground or air strikes, or if it will involve coordination with China or Iran. China’s recent concerns over the safety of its citizens in Pakistan have sparked negotiations for joint counterterrorism exercises.
Pressed about China’s role in the operation, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian would not go into detail, only saying Beijing is willing to promote pragmatic cooperation that benefits both sides.
Meanwhile, Iran has been engaged in weeks of heavy fighting against separatist militants in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, which shares a border with both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The military operation will be particularly focused on the BLA and other outlawed groups, according to Sharif’s office, although the start date is yet to be determined. The government has accused these groups of attacking civilians and foreign nationals in a bid to undermine economic development of Pakistan at the behest of hostile external forces.
The BLA has waged an armed struggle for independence from Islamabad, accusing the central government of stealing the rich gas and mineral resources of the province and depriving the locals of any benefit from it. One of the recent attacks blamed on the BLA was the one where a suicide bomber had blown himself up in a busy train station in Quetta on November 9, killing 26 people including soldiers, police, and civilians.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest yet economically disadvantaged province, is rich in resources and shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran. Armed groups in the region have historically targeted foreign-funded energy projects, particularly those involving Chinese investments, accusing outsiders of exploiting local resources.
In a separate attack, Pakistan’s military said 12 soldiers were killed in an attack on a base in the Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Hafiz Gul Bahadur faction-a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban-claimed that attack, which was carried out by ramming an explosives-laden vehicle into the military outpost.
The fresh wave of violence brings the overall death toll from armed attacks in the past 24 hours to 20, following another attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province blamed on the TTP.
In turn, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that it had killed three armed separatists and apprehended 11 others during its continuous operations in the Sistan and Baluchestan region. Last month, upon a request by Iranian authorities, Pakistan’s military carried out air raids on Jaish al-Adl positions, killing 12 members of the group which Tehran describes as a terrorist organization receiving support from Israel.
