Pakistan battled Baloch insurgents in the southwestern part of the country for almost 38 hours following two attacks that began on Thursday, killing 13 insurgents and losing 12 of its own soldiers, as a top US military commander warned the terrorism threat has increased in Pakistan since the US departure from the region. 

The Pakistan military launched a search operation in the Kech district of its restive Balochistan province following the Thursday attack—one of the fiercest by Baloch insurgents in recent months— and killed three insurgents and injured six, the ISPR, the media wing of the military said on Friday. 

Kech is the same district where 10 Pakistani soldiers were killed in an ambush by Baloch insurgents.

Significantly, the coverage of the attacks—and the search operations that followed them - remained muted in most of the Pakistani mainstream media, which, in recent years, has increasingly come under the military’s undeclared censorship. 

Reuters quoted two senior military officials, on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the operation wasn’t yet over by Friday night— an account also confirmed by some of the local journalists as military helicopters continued hovering over the sites of the attacks. 

Mobile and internet connectivity remained suspended till Friday night. Jeeyand, the spokesperson of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the group that took the responsibility for the attacks, said in a statement on Friday evening that the headquarters of Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force, in Panjgur district remained under their control 

In another incident on Friday, at least six people were injured in a grenade attack in Chaman, a northwestern district bordering Afghanistan.

The frequency of attacks, especially in the country’s northwestern tribal region and the southwestern part, has grown significantly in recent months, as insurgents continue executing more audacious attacks by the day, mounting heavy casualties to security forces. 

Meanwhile, a top US general on Friday warned the threat of terrorism has increased in Pakistan. 
 
“The threat to Pakistan has risen since our departure from Afghanistan,” US Central Command chief General Kenneth McKenzie, said in his keynote speech at a Washington-based think tank, Middle East Institute. 

“Many of those terrorist groups that operated across the border [Af-Pak] back and forth are now looking at Pakistan,” Gen McKenzie said, “Pakistanis are right to be concerned about it.” 

Following the stepped-up attack this week, the Pakistan Military had blamed India and Afghanistan, claiming—without putting out any evidence—that their intelligence agencies intercepted communication between the attackers and their handlers based in Afghanistan and India. 

In the last ten days, Baloch insurgents have killed around 20 Pakistan soldiers, according to officials estimate by the Pakistan government. The numbers given by the insurgent groups are much higher though.   

(SAM)