ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said on Sunday that the country’s security forces had carried out thousands of intelligence-based operations in the province, killing 706 terrorists who were infiltrating from Afghanistan to plan attacks inside Pakistan.
The Chief Minister stressed that these targeted operations—not a full-scale military operation—formed the core of the state’s ongoing counterterrorism efforts in Balochistan.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, CM Bugti noted that as many as 900 terror incidents in Balochistan had claimed the lives of 280 civilians, 205 security personnel and six officers, two of whom hailed from the province.
The Balochistan chief minister stated that around 10 terrorists’ bodies remained at the border.
CM Bugti stated that the government’s policy toward those who take up arms was clear, adding that the state remained open to those who seek forgiveness.
However, the Chief Minister questioned whether the policy of reconciliation with terrorists could ever be justified. “Should we allow terrorists to reach Islamabad?” he asked.
The Chief Minister said that there was no military operation underway in the province, clarifying that only intelligence-based operations (IBOs) were being conducted against terrorists.
His remarks came a day after security forces killed 12 terrorists during an IBO in the Kalat district of Balochistan.
The Chief Minister said that terrorists from Balochistan were freed and resettled in 2018, following the same approach used for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
“These terrorists are still fighting the state today and are shedding the blood of innocent people,” CM Bugti said.
The Chief Minister added that an anti-state narrative had been propagated against Pakistan, its armed forces, and the Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir.
CM Bugti remarked that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi’s position did not allow him to join such a narrative, urging him to quit constant protests and instead make efforts to provide relief to the people of the province.
He endorsed the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) director general’s press conference, in which the military spokesperson described Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) political party founder and former prime minister Imran Khan as “mentally ill” and a “national security threat”.
He emphasised that terrorists would not succeed owing to the presence of a disciplined army and its courageous leadership.
“Those who plan attacks in the name of religion will fail,” he said, while criticising political narratives that target military leadership.
“I do not like a fellow politician being labelled as anti-state or a security threat. But don’t we need to reflect on our own attitudes?” he asked.
Calling the fight against terrorism every citizen’s responsibility, Bugti urged the nation to stand firmly with its security forces.
