In Gwadar district, Pakistan, 14 people were killed in an attack on Pakistani troops on Friday, according to the military. This incident is the latest in a region that has long been troubled by an insurgency and the presence of Islamist militants.
The Inter Services Public Relations agency (ISPR), the army’s public relations wing, stated that “Two vehicles of security forces moving from Pasni to Ormara in Gwadar District were ambushed by the terrorists,” without providing any information about the attackers.
For years, the government in Balochistan, a mineral-rich region that shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran, has been facing resistance from ethnic Balochs.
In addition to the Baloch insurgency, Islamist militants have also been active in Balochistan, with intentions to overthrow the Pakistani government and establish their own strict Islamic law in the predominantly Muslim country of 220 million people.
The army statement stated, “Sanitization operation is being carried out in the area and perpetrators of this heinous act will be hunted down & brought to justice,” without specifying the group responsible for the attack.
Reporting from Peshawar, Mushtaq Ali and from Quetta, Saleem Shahid; writing by Ariba Shahid in Karachi; editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Cawthorne.
