Our Correspondent Quetta
Pakistani security forces overnight killed six terrorists of a separatist group in a raid at their hideout in the mountains of southwestern Balochistan province, the military said Saturday.
Counterterrorism police arrested three others from the same group, the Balochistan Liberation Army, in a separate operation, the military said in a statement.
The statement said the Saturday raid was conducted in the district of Kharan based on credible intelligence that terrorists were hiding out in the area.
It said a shootout erupted after the mili-tants opened fire on Frontier Corps troops. Six terrorists, including two commanders, were killed and a large cache of arms and ammunition was recovered, the statement said.
The Balochistan Liberation Army, one of the main separatist groups in the province, has waged an insur-gency in the mineral and gas rich province for nearly two decades.
It confirmed in a statement that the group’s six men were killed in the ongoing security forces operation in a mountainous area of Kharan dis-trict.
Counterterrorism police in Turbat area Friday night arrested three members of the BLA who they said were involved in facilitating attacks on security forces and civilians.
The police statement said the three men were also involved in last month’s suicide attack in the port city of Gwadar that killed four children playing alongside the road.
The attack targeted a security forces convoy escorting Chinese nationals and one Chinese was wounded in the attack.
Counterterrorism police said the arrested men were also involved in an attack on a luxury hotel in Gwadar in 2019.
