QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister (CM) Sarfraz Bugti has said that 145 terrorists were sent to hell in almost 40 hours in Balochistan after the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) launched “coordinated attacks across 12 towns.”
Addressing a press conference in Quetta Sarfraz Bugti said that”17 security personnel and 31 civilians embraced martyrdom during the attacks carried out across the province.”
CM Bugti said the bodies of 145 terrorists were in the custody of the authorities and revealed that terrorists in Gwadar had martyred five women and three children. The slain family belonged to Khuzdar and were Baloch, he added.
Bugti slammed hostile elements for trying to destabilise Pakistan at the behest of India and questioned whether the BLA was a registered political party with which negotiations could be held.
READ MORE: 10 cops, security personnel martyred: 108 terrorists killed in Balochistan
He said the group wanted to impose its ideology through the use of guns and reiterated that the government was not prepared to surrender even for a second. “We will not surrender… they [terrorists] can destabilise but cannot take a single inch of our country,” CM Bugti said.
Declaring that “our blood is not cheap,” the chief minister said the perpetrators would not be allowed to escape and warned that the land would be turned into hell for terrorists.
He said Balochistan would be taken towards peace and maintained that the use of force had never been carried out in the province in the manner claimed, stressing that only small, targeted operations were conducted.
He said the provincial government bears the responsibility of taking care of the children of martyrs and disclosed that authorities had received intelligence reports about the planned terrorist attacks and had launched operations a day earlier based on those reports.
Referring to security arrangements, he said terrorists believed they would be able to penetrate the Red Zone, but they failed.
He confirmed that Nushki had now been completely cleared and that operations had already been initiated earlier on intelligence information.—NNI
AFP adds: Forces hunted on Sunday for the separatists behind a string of coordinated attacks in restive Balochistan, with the government vowing to retaliate after more than 190 people were killed in two days.
Around a dozen sites remained sealed off, with troops combing the area a day after militants stormed banks, jails, police stations and military installations, matyring at least 31 civilians and 17 security personnel, according to the chief minister of Balochistan.
At least 145 attackers were also killed, he said.
That figure includes more than 40 militants that security forces said were killed on Friday.
Mobile internet service across the province has been jammed for more than 24 hours, while road traffic is disrupted and train services suspended.
Typically bustling Quetta, the provincial capital, lay quiet on Sunday after being rocked by explosions, with major roads and businesses deserted and people staying indoors out of fear.
Shattered metal fragments and mangled vehicles littered some roads.
“Anyone who leaves home has no certainty of returning safe and sound. There is constant fear over whether they will come back unharmed,” Hamdullah, a 39-year-old shopkeeper who goes by one name, told AFP in Quetta.
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