QUETTA: Pakistan forces hunted on Sunday (Feb 1) for the separatists behind a string of coordinated attacks in restive Balochistan province, with the government vowing to retaliate after more than 190 people were killed in two days.
Around a dozen sites remained sealed off, with troops combing the area a day after militants stormed banks, jails, police stations and military installations, killing at least 31 civilians and 17 security personnel, according to the chief minister of Balochistan province.
At least 145 attackers were also killed, he said.
That figure includes more than 40 militants that security forces said were killed on Friday.
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.
Mobile internet service across the province has been jammed for more than 24 hours, while road traffic is disrupted and train services suspended.
Typically bustling Quetta, the provincial capital, lay quiet on Sunday after being rocked by explosions, with major roads and businesses deserted and people staying indoors out of fear.
Shattered metal fragments and mangled vehicles littered some roads.
“Anyone who leaves home has no certainty of returning safe and sound. There is constant fear over whether they will come back unharmed,” Hamdullah, a 39-year-old shopkeeper who goes by one name, told AFP in Quetta.
“OUR BLOOD IS NOT CHEAP”
The chief minister, Sarfraz Bugti, told a news conference in Quetta that all the districts under attack were cleared on Sunday.
“We are chasing them, we will not let them go so easily,” he said.
“Our blood is not that cheap. We will chase them until their hideouts.”
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.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who flew to Quetta late on Saturday to attend funerals, claimed without offering any evidence that the attackers were supported by India.
“We will not spare a single terrorist involved in these incidents,” he said.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/pakistan-seeks-out-perpetrators-after-deadly-separatist-attacks-5899371
