Banned outfit commander among 34 killed in Kalat operation

QUETTA: Pakistani paramilitary troops killed at least 34 suspected militants including the banned United Baloch Army Commander Abdul Nabi Bangulzai during a three-day operation in Balochistan, the government said on Saturday.

“The operation concluded on Saturday in which a huge quantity of arms and ammunition was also recovered from their camps, which were destroyed by the security forces,” said Provincial Home Minister Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti, in a press conference.

Bugti said those killed including Abdul Nabi Bangulzai, allegedly a “main commander” of the United Baloch Army, one of several armed separatist groups fighting Pakistani forces in the province.

The latest three-day operation took place in Kalat district. The group included fighters involved in an attack on a provincial judge in 2001, as well as a bus attack that saw 22 people killed last year, Bugti said.

In a separate incident, also on Saturday, six people were killed in an attack in the Prom area of Panjgur district, a local government official said.

Around 20 men, armed with heavy weaponry, attacked a house in the district, killing six people, including a woman, said Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Qambrani, the Deputy Commissioner for the district. No group had yet claimed responsibility for that attack.  Separatist groups in Balochistan threatened to attack any CPEC projects in the province.

Bangulzai was involved in the killing of Balochistan High Court Chief Justice Nawaz Marri, Provincial Home Minister Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti added.

He, however, said that the security forces would continue their operation against those who challenged the writ of the government. Answering another query he said that inquiry was under way into incident of manhandling doctors.