QUETTA, Pakistan — (AP) — Pakistani troops fought separatist insurgents who set up roadblocks in the restive northwestern region of Balochistan, leaving 18 paramilitary security forces and 23 rebels dead in some of the heaviest clashes in recent years, officials said Saturday.
The military said troops suffered casualties when they engaged the insurgents who erected barricades on a key highway in Kalat, bordering Afghanistan.
The security forces “successfully removed the roadblock” following the fighting overnight into Saturday morning, the military said in a statement.
It said 18 security personnel died during the operation and vowed that “the perpetrators, facilitators and abettors of this heinous and cowardly act, will be brought to justice." Security forces recovered the bodies of 12 insurgents, the military said.
Troops also killed another 11 insurgents in an operation that was still underway, it said.
Pakistan’s civil and military security forces in 2024 witnessed a 40% surge in militant attacks by all groups, compared to 2023. However, in December the military insisted that security forces killed 925 insurgents in 2024, a record high compared to the past five years, while 383 soldiers were killed in such operations last year.
The latest attacks drew condemnation from Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, as well as provincial leaders in Balochistan, who also praised the security forces for eliminating the “terrorists.”
Zardari and Sharif said the operations will continue in Balochistan until the insurgents are eliminated.
The Baloch Liberation Army separatist group claimed responsibility for attack.
In a statement, BLA spokesman Azad Baloch said their fighters "have made significant progress in the Kalat attacks, achieving their targeted objectives.” He also claimed that insurgents attacked a military post in the district. Baloch said their 100 fighters took part in the coordinated attacks on security forces in Kalat district.
Abdullah Khan, the managing director of the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, said the latest attack showed that the insurgent group's capability to carry out multiple attacks and hold highways in their control had increased. “The latest attack is one of the deadliest ones since last year,” he said.
Khan said Pakistan witnessed a sharp increase in militant attacks in January, surging by 42% compared to the previous month. As many as 74 militant attacks were recorded nationwide in January, he said.
The BLA often targets security forces, civilians and foreigners, especially Chinese working on multibillion-dollar projects in Pakistan. In November, a BLA suicide bomber detonated at a train station in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing 26 people, including soldiers and railway staff.
Since then, the military and police have stepped up operations against the insurgents in the oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan, which is a hub for the country's ethnic Baloch minority, whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government.
Balochistan has for years been the scene of a long-running insurgency, with several separatist groups staging attacks, targeting mainly security forces in their quest for independence. The province also has an array of militant groups that are active there.
The BLA also enjoys the backing of Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and are a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban.
Authorities say the BLA and TTP have been using weapons that fell into their hands after the Afghan Taliban came into power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021. The Islamic State group also has a presence in the province.
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Associated Press writer Ishtiaq Mahsud contributed to this story from Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan.