ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top civilian and military leaders on Wednesday offered funeral prayers for a lieutenant colonel who succumbed to his injuries in an intelligence-based operation this week, the military’s media wing said.
Lt. Col. Khalid Hussain, a resident of Pakistan’s eastern Sargodha district, died on Tuesday after he succumbed to injuries sustained during an intelligence-based operation in the southwestern Balochistan province, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
Pakistan’s military said the army officer was killed by “Indian-sponsored terrorists” in Balochistan, without specifying the location. The ISPR said his funeral prayers were offered at Chaklala Garrison in Rawalpindi, which was attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir and other federal ministers, military officers and his relatives.
“Paying rich tribute to Lt. Col. Khalid Hussain Shaheed, the prime minister lauded his exceptional bravery, devotion to duty and steadfast commitment to the defense of the motherland,” the ISPR said.
“He reaffirmed that the Armed Forces of Pakistan, with complete support of the nation, remain fully determined to eradicate the menace of Indian-sponsored terrorism and its facilitators from the country.”
The military said Hussain will be laid to rest in his native town with full military honors.
Pakistan’s military has been fighting a years-long insurgency by ethnic Baloch separatists in Balochistan. Baloch militant groups, the most prominent among them the Baloch Liberation Army, accuse the state of denying locals a share in the mineral-rich province’s resources.
Pakistan’s government and military reject these allegations, saying Islamabad has undertaken several projects to uplift Balochistan’s masses.
