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Pakistan has decided to present what it describes as evidence of India’s alleged involvement in fueling unrest in Balochistan before international forums, according to Rana Sanaullah, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s adviser on political and public affairs.
Speaking on Geo News’ Naya Pakistan program on Friday, Sanaullah said the situation in Balochistan should not be viewed merely as a political, law-and-order, or terrorism issue. Instead, he claimed it constituted a “full-scale war” imposed by India through the use of Afghanistan as a proxy.
According to Geo News, Sanaullah said the government had made a decision at the highest level to present what it called concrete evidence against India to the international community. He alleged that Afghanistan was being deliberately used as a base for launching attacks inside Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistani security sources claimed that 17 more “India-backed terrorists” were killed on Friday during the ongoing Operation Shaban in Balochistan, raising the total number of militants killed in the operation to 43.
The operation was launched jointly by the Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps (FC), and Balochistan Police following a deadly attack on the Mangi Dam Police Station.
At a press briefing on Wednesday, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that militants allegedly backed by India had attacked the police checkpoint. Police personnel, he said, mounted a strong resistance, killing 15 attackers in the initial exchange of fire.
He added that nine police officers were killed during the first phase of the fighting. The attackers later took several police personnel hostage before security forces arrived at the scene.
“Our sons were being held hostage,” Chaudhry said, explaining that security forces therefore conducted the operation with extreme caution while encircling the militants in the mountainous Ziarat region.
He noted that security forces had been conducting operations in the area since July 6. According to Chaudhry, once the militants realized they had been surrounded, they killed another 18 police officers.
He said the Mangi checkpoint attack resulted in the deaths of 27 police personnel, while 26 militants were killed during the subsequent operation.
Security sources also said an attack on a police station in Khuzdar had been repelled. They claimed that a follow-up operation by the Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps killed eight more armed individuals.
According to the same sources, Operation Shaban and other intelligence-based operations conducted since July 5 have killed a total of 91 armed militants. They further claimed that an additional five to six militants were killed in separate helicopter operations.
Despite what officials described as significant losses inflicted on armed groups, the three most recent attacks have claimed the lives of 42 people, including security personnel and civilians.
At a meeting of the provincial Apex Committee on the National Action Plan in Quetta on Thursday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reaffirmed the civilian and military leadership’s commitment to eliminating what he described as “India-backed terrorism” in Balochistan.
“We must defeat the sinister designs of Fitna al-Khawarij. The entire nation stands with the armed forces,” the prime minister said.
Sharif also declared that Pakistan’s campaign would continue “until the last terrorist is eliminated.” In an apparent reference to India, he accused Pakistan’s “eastern neighbor” of being behind the recent terrorist attacks and alleged that Afghan territory was being used to facilitate attacks inside Pakistan.