Fighters reportedly fire at a vehicle carrying Frontier Corps paramilitaries trying to dismantle a roadblock.
Published On 1 Feb 2025
At least 18 paramilitary soldiers and 24 armed attackers have been killed in two related incidents in southwestern Pakistan, according to officials and local media reports, as sectarian, ethnic and separatist violence escalates in the region.
Pakistan’s military on Saturday said fighters tried to set up roadblocks overnight in the restive province of Balochistan, and most of the deaths took place as security forces removed them.
A vehicle “carrying unarmed Frontier Corps paramilitaries” near the town of Mangochar “came under gunfire from 70 to 80 armed assailants who had blocked the road”, a police official told the AFP news agency.
The officer said three other paramilitaries were seriously injured while two escaped unharmed.
In a statement, the Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack on the paramilitary, but gave a lower death toll of 17.
At least 11 of the attackers were killed in what the military described as follow-up “clearance operations” on Saturday.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a statement condemned the attack.
The mineral-rich Balochistan, which b