Security forces in Pakistan have killed two gunmen who attacked a convoy of Chinese workers in the country’s southwestern Balochistan province.
“Two attackers were killed in the operation, which has now concluded,” Gawadar Deputy Superintendent of Police Chakar Baloch told Al Jazeera on Sunday.Local police official Jawad Tariq said all members of the Chinese convoy and security officials involved in the exchange of fire remained unharmed.The separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack on vehicles carrying Chinese engineers in the southern coastal city of Gawadar, where China is building a seaport.
“BLA Majeed Brigade today targeted a convoy of Chinese engineers in Gawadar,” the armed group, which is banned in Pakistan, said on social media.
Earlier, the media wing of Pakistan’s military issued a statement saying an operation was launched after the “presence of terrorists in the area was confirmed”.
China’s state-run newspaper Global Times also confirmed the attack, saying, “the convoy of three SUVs and a van, all bulletproof, carried 23 Chinese personnel”Gawadar, a seaport town on Pakistan’s southwestern coast, is undergoing developmental projects carried out with help from Chinese engineers and financed by the Chinese government.
BLA and other Baloch separatist groups have previously carried out and claimed attacks on China-linked development projects in the province.
The area where the attack took place houses the Pak-China Technical Institute, a judicial complex and other government offices.Meanwhile, in the Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, an intelligence-based operation (IBO) resulted in the deaths of four terrorists and the arrest of one.
According to the ISPR, security forces conducted an operation in Charmang last night after receiving reports about the presence of terrorists. During the operation, “intense fire exchange occurred between security forces and terrorists,” the statement said.
’“Four terrorists were sent to hell while one terrorist was apprehended,” the ISPR said.The statement continued by stating that the terrorists, "who remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against security forces and killing of innocent citizens, especially suicide blasts," had also been found with guns, ammo, and explosives, including a suicide vest.
These developments come a week after Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir warned that the surge in terrorism incidents in recent months is a “futile effort” by terrorists to re-start talks, emphasizing there is “no other choice for these terrorists other than to submit to Pakistan’s writ before they are decimated if they persist on their wrong path”.
“With the unflinching resolve of the nation, Pakistan is successfully countering terrorism to enable a stable and peaceful environment for socioeconomic development in the area,” the COAS was quoted as saying by ISPR.
“Terrorism has no place in Pakistan and the involvement of Afghan nationals in terrorist incidents in Pakistan is detrimental to regional peace, stability, and deviation from the Doha Peace Agreement by the interim Afghan Government,” COAS reiterated.
On August 12, security forces carried out an intelligence-based operation in the Mazaband Range region of Balochistan's Kech province, killing two terrorists.
Last month, as many as 12 soldiers of the Pakistan Army were martyred in separate military operations in the Zhob and Sui areas of Balochistan.“Terrorists used small arms and hand grenades,” the military statement said, adding security forces cordoned off the area and carried out a search operation.