ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s security forces have killed 10 Indian-backed terrorists and arrested two female suicide bombers during a series of intelligence-based operations in Balochistan over the past 48 hours, the military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said on Tuesday.
The operations were carried out as part of Pakistan’s ongoing campaign against what the military described as the terrorist nexus of the Indian-sponsored “Fitna al Hindustan” and “Fitna al Khwarij”, aimed at eliminating militants and their facilitators from the province.
Pakistan military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said the operations were carried out in Surab and Mastung districts as part of an ongoing campaign against terrorist groups operating in the province.
The military said seven terrorists were killed in the Surab district during intelligence-based operations. In Mastung, security forces killed three others and detained two women suicide bombers, along with an individual facilitating their activities.
Weapons, ammunition and improvised explosive devices were recovered during the operations, the statement said.
Pakistan’s military described those targeted as members of groups it refers to as “Fitna al Hindustan” and “Fitna al Khwarij,” terms increasingly used by the state to refer to terrorist organisations involved in attacks inside the country.
Fitna al Hindustan is a term for the Indian proxies, and Fitna al Khawarij is used to describe the banned and uprooted Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) presently taking refuge in Afghanistan.
According to the statement, India is behind most of the terrorists operating against Pakistan from Afghanistan.
The province borders Afghanistan and Iran and hosts several strategic infrastructure and mining projects.
Security forces have intensified operations in the region in recent years amid a rise in attacks targeting civilians, security personnel and foreign interests.
Pakistani authorities say the campaign forms part of “Azm-e-Istehkam” (“Resolve for Stability”), a nationwide counterterrorism initiative approved under the country’s National Action Plan framework.
The military said sanitisation operations remained underway to locate any remaining suspects in the affected areas and reiterated its commitment to eliminating what it described as foreign-sponsored terrorism.
The details of Wednesday’s operations could not be independently verified, and no group named in the military’s statement immediately commented on the allegations.
