Nine people described by the military as Indian-sponsored terrorists were killed in two intelligence-based operations in Balochistan on October 26, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Wednesday, October 28. The Balochistan IBOs Kachhi Wadh were carried out in Kachhi and Wadh districts after reports of the presence of fighters belonging to Fitna al-Hindustan.
The state has designated Balochistan-based militant groups as Fitna al-Hindustan, a label it uses to point to India’s alleged role in terrorism and destabilisation in Pakistan. India has in the past denied backing such groups, and the designation itself remains a claim by the Pakistani state rather than an independently verified fact.
Balochistan IBOs Kachhi Wadh: what happened in each district
In the first operation, in Kachhi, security forces raided a hideout and destroyed it after an exchange of fire, the ISPR said. Seven people were killed in that clash, and weapons and ammunition were recovered from the site.
In the second operation, in Wadh, forces tracked and intercepted the movement of fighters and killed two more people in a separate exchange of fire. Weapons and ammunition were also recovered there, according to the statement.
The ISPR said sanitisation operations were under way to find any other fighters in the areas. It added that a relentless counterterrorism campaign under the vision of Azm-e-Istehkam would continue at full pace to wipe out what it called foreign-sponsored terrorism from the country.
Reaction from the president and prime minister
President Asif Ali Zardari paid tribute to the security forces and commended what he called their professional capabilities. He said the conspiracies of terrorists’ foreign patrons and their local facilitators would be thwarted, and added that the nation stood shoulder to shoulder with its security forces and law enforcement agencies.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also praised the officers and personnel involved, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office reported by The Express Tribune. He said the fight against terrorism would continue until the menace was completely eliminated, and that terrorists seeking to undermine Pakistan’s security and peace would never succeed in their designs.
Why this fits a wider October pattern in Balochistan
The October 26 operations are the latest in a run of reported actions in the province this month, and that run is worth setting out plainly because it shows how often Balochistan has featured in ISPR statements in recent weeks.
On the night of October 12 and 13, security forces busted a hideout and killed five people during an operation in Washuk, as Feature Pakistan reported at the time. A day before an operation in which an army major was martyred on October 18, forces killed eight people described as India-sponsored terrorists in operations in Quetta, Nushki and Khuzdar. In the October 18 operations themselves, the major was martyred and four terrorists were killed. Then, on October 23, security forces killed 10 terrorists, including a woman, during operations in Gwadar after reported attacks near the Gabd border crossing and in Gwadar city, as covered in our earlier Gwadar report.
Independent data points in the same direction. The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies recorded 225 attacks across Pakistan in September, up from 199 in August, a rise of 13.1 per cent and the highest monthly total in 12 years. Balochistan remained the principal theatre, with 131 attacks, or 58.2 per cent of the national total. The institute also noted that security forces conducted 74 operations in September and killed 280 terrorists, of which Balochistan accounted for 35 operations and 171 deaths.
Those figures do not by themselves prove the claims made about any single operation. They do explain why Balochistan keeps returning to the top of the security agenda.
What happens next
Sanitisation operations in Kachhi and Wadh will determine whether further fighters, hideouts or weapons are found in the two districts. The ISPR has not named the nine people killed, and no independent account of the two clashes has yet been published. Until such an account appears, the details rest on the military’s statement and the tributes that followed it.
Frequently asked questions
What is an intelligence-based operation?
An intelligence-based operation is a targeted action launched after specific information about the presence of fighters, a hideout or planned activity. It differs from a broad area sweep because it starts from a report about a particular place or group.
