Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - International Service: A Pakistani official confirmed today (Saturday) that 18 soldiers were killed and five others, including two civilians, were injured in a nighttime attack by militants on three different locations in the city of Mangochar, located in the Kalat district of Balochistan.
Arab News news website reported that the attacks began on Friday evening, when the militants stormed three different locations in the city of Mangochar, located in the Kalat district of Balochistan, about 103 kilometers from Quetta, the provincial capital.
The attacks took place in Pedrang, Khuzani and Manguchar market, the deputy governor said, after militants carried out surprise checks on passenger vehicles passing through the city.
In the first attack, a van carrying 17 soldiers, which was travelling from Pangjur to Quetta, the provincial capital, was attacked near the mountainous Khuzani area, Shabir said, during which gunmen clashed with the Border Patrol and Lewis Border Security Force (BSF) forces.
He said a Border Security Force soldier was killed in separate clashes with the militants.
Shabir said the bodies of the slain soldiers were being transferred to Quetta. "We do not know how many of the attackers were killed because they carried the bodies of their accomplices into the mountains in the dark," he said.
Three Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers were also injured in the attack, and militants set fire to a private bank in Manguchar market, the deputy governor said.
The banned separatist group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement. The group said its forces had captured a Pakistani security force base in Mangochar, a claim Arab News could not independently verify.
Meanwhile, Assistant Governor Ali Gul Hassan said two civilians were also killed when a Quetta-Karachi passenger bus was shot in the Mangochar market. He said security forces had taken control of the area and had reopened the Karachi-Quetta highway and surrounding roads.
Arab News contacted Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistani military, for further comment, but did not receive a response.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by area and rich in mineral resources, has long faced a low-level insurgency led by separatist groups such as the Baloch Liberation Army, which accuses Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources, including gold and copper, without regard for the needs of the local population.
However, the Pakistani government has denied the allegations and says it has prioritized the development of Balochistan through investments in health, education and infrastructure projects.
In recent years, the Baloch Liberation Army has emerged as a significant security threat, carrying out major attacks in Pakistan’s Balochistan and Sindh provinces, targeting security forces, Punjabis and Chinese nationals working on development projects.
The group carried out more than 50 coordinated attacks in August last year. Last month, dozens of these separatist forces took control of a small town in Khuzdar for several hours, seizing weapons and vehicles from local LoC forces and setting fire to a LoC station.
Violence sparked by the presence of separatist forces in Pakistan, mainly the Baloch Liberation Army, has killed 300 people in the past year, according to official figures, reflecting the expansion of a conflict that has been going on for decades.