QUETTA: A police officer and two militants were killed in a gunfight in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, a senior police official said on Monday.
The gunfight ensued after dozens of armed men stormed the remote town of Bhag in Kachi district, located some 230 kilometers from the provincial capital of Quetta, at around 4:15pm local time.
Maaz-ur-Rehman, the Kachi senior superintendent of police (SSP), told Arab News the attackers, armed with heavy weapons, targeted the Bhag police station, Levies paramilitary station, a government-owned bank and offices.
While no group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault, Baloch separatist militants have staged similar assaults in the past in a bid to seize control of towns in the insurgency-hit, sparsely populated province.
“Police and Levies forces resisted with bravery and killed two terrorists,” SSP Rehman told Arab News. “Unfortunately, Station House Officer (SHO) Bhaag Lutf Khosa was killed and another policeman was injured while repulsing the attack.”
Videos circulating on social media showed dozens of fighters roaming in the streets of the town. In one clip, a man, who identifies himself as an employee of National Bank, describes how the attackers vandalized their bank branch.
“The terrorists have taken away one body of their killed members, while the other was seized by Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) officials with weapons and grenades,” SSP Rehman said, adding the attackers also snatched a sniper rifle from a paramilitary Levies member.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and resource-rich province, has long been plagued by a low-level insurgency led by ethnic Baloch separatist groups like the BLA. They accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources, such as gold and copper, while neglecting the local population.
Pakistan rejects these allegations, asserting that the federal government has prioritized Balochistan’s development by investing in health, education and infrastructure projects.
In January, armed fighters from the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) group attacked the Zehri town in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district, seizing government facilities before security forces regained control, an administration official in the area said. Last week, two policemen were killed in a drive-by shooting in Nushki district of the resource-rich region bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
Pakistan has frequently accused Afghanistan of allowing the use of its soil and India of backing militant groups for cross-border attacks in Pakistan’s western regions. Kabul and New Delhi have consistently denied the allegations.
