A new wave of violence in southwestern Pakistan has left 29 members of the security forces dead, deepening concerns over the security situation in Balochistan, a province long affected by separatist militancy and attacks on state targets.
The dead included 18 police officers who had been abducted earlier in the week and later killed, as well as 11 soldiers who died in a separate attack on Wednesday. The incidents added to a wider sequence of assaults that has hit both security forces and civilians since Monday.
Lieutenant General Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry, a military spokesman, said the overall death toll since Monday had reached 42, most of them soldiers and police officers. He also said security forces had killed 54 insurgents in operations carried out during the same period.
The police officers were seized after militants attacked a police post in Ziarat district on Monday night. Nine other officers were killed during that assault. Authorities described the attackers as members of a group the government calls Fitna al-Khawarij, a term used for the banned Balochistan Liberation Army.
Pakistan has accused the Balochistan Liberation Army of receiving support from India, an allegation denied by New Delhi. The group has recently claimed a series of attacks against security forces in Balochistan, where the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, also maintains a significant presence.
The 11 soldiers were killed when insurgents ambushed their vehicle on a road in Balochistan. The attack underscored the vulnerability of security convoys in a vast province where difficult terrain, sparse population and long-running insurgent networks complicate state control.
Balochistan is Pakistan's largest province by area and its least densely populated. It has been the scene of a prolonged separatist insurgency and repeated militant violence, including attacks on security personnel and civilians.
