Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) launched a series of attacks across Pakistan’s Balochistan province, targeting police stations, a high-security prison, and paramilitary installations.
At least 10 security personnel were killed and several others injured, while 11 civilians, including three women and three children from ethnic Baloch families, reportedly also lost their lives.
The assaults, which began around 3 a.m. local time, triggered intense clashes and prompted immediate security operations, with internet services disrupted and train traffic suspended in parts of the province.
The senior security official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said “terrorists… launched coordinated attacks this morning at more than 12 locations”. “Ten security personnel were martyred while a few others were injured,” the official said, adding that 67 militants were killed.
A senior military official in Islamabad said the attacks were “coordinated but poorly executed”, adding that they had “failed due to poor planning and rapid collapse under effective security response”.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised security forces for “foiling” the attacks. “We will continue the war against terrorism until its complete eradication,” he said in a statement in which he accused India of backing the separatists.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most active militant separatist group in the province, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The group said it had targeted military installations and police and civil administration officials in gun attacks and suicide bombings. It said major highways were blocked to disrupt military operations.
“Over the past 12 months, security forces in Balochistan have sent more than 700 terrorists to hell, with around 70 terrorists eliminated in just the last two days alone,” claimed Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister of Balochistan.
“These attacks cannot weaken our resolve against terrorism.”
Turkey Not To Join Pak-Saudi Pact
Meanwhile, Turkey will not join a mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, a source close to the Saudi military told AFP.
Speculation has been rife that the three countries were intent on forming a powerful alliance amid soaring tensions in the region, following Israeli air strikes in Doha targeting Hamas officials.
“Turkey won’t join the defence pact with Pakistan,” the source told AFP, dismissing reports of negotiations. “It’s a bilateral pact with Pakistan and will remain a bilateral pact”.
A Gulf official also confirmed the information.
“This is a bilateral defensive relationship with Pakistan. We have common agreements with Turkey, but the one with Pakistan will stay bilateral,” the official said.
The defence pact between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia raised many questions, particularly about its possible nuclear component, given that Islamabad possesses nuclear weapons.
Explosion in Iran
An explosion reported on Saturday at a residential building in the southern Iranian city of Bandar Abbas on the Gulf coast was the result of a gas leak, according to the local fire chief.
State television said the explosion ripped through an eight-storey residential building, “destroying two floors, several vehicles, and shops” in the area of Moallem Boulevard in the city.
“The initial cause of the building accident in Bandar Abbas was a gas leak and buildup, leading to an explosion. This is the initial theory,” Mohammad Amin Lyaghat said, in comments broadcast on state television.
Separate incidents were reported elsewhere in the country on Saturday, but media outlets quickly dismissed any connection to an attack or potential sabotage, with tensions high as US President Donald Trump intensifies threats of military strikes against Iran.
“Unfortunately, a four-year-old girl lost her life,” and 14 people were hospitalised, Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, director general of crisis management for Hormozgan province, where Bandar Abbas is the capital, told Mehr news agency.
Images circulating on social media show part of the building’s facade blown out.
The incident came as the US has built up its naval presence in the region, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
After rumours circulated online, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) denied that any of the buildings belonging to its naval forces in the province had been targeted, according to a statement carried by the Fars news agency.
The Tasnim agency on Saturday also denied “assassination rumours” surrounding the commander of the Guards’ navy, Alireza Tangsiri.
Separately, in the southwestern Khuzestan province, four people were killed in a gas explosion that also took place on Saturday in the Kianshahr neighbourhood of Ahvaz city.
In Parand, on the outskirts of the capital Tehran, smoke in the area was “not related to a security incident and was caused by a minor fire in the reeds”, state television reported.
Via: AFP
