QUETTA, BALOCHISTAN: Multiple armed incidents were reported across different districts of Balochistan on Monday, pointing to a significant escalation of militant activity in the Balochistan. Dozens of armed men attacked and seized a police station and a security checkpoint in the districts of Pishin and Qilla Abdullah, while a separate group of armed men established a blockade on a major highway in Sibi, targeting trucks transporting minerals.
According to sources, dozens of armed men launched simultaneous attacks on Sultan Police Station, located in the Dinar area of Pishin district near the northwestern mountains of Quetta and the Geelo Checkpoint in the Dolungi area of Gulistan tehsil in Qilla Abdullah.
The attackers overpowered and detained the personnel present at both facilities before seizing their official weapons and vehicles. The armed men then set fire to the police station, the checkpoint and the residential quarters attached to the facilities. According to sources, the attackers also used an excavator to demolish the checkpoint building before fleeing the area.
No casualties among the detained officers have been confirmed at the time of this report. The scale and coordination of the attack involving the use of heavy machinery suggests significant prior planning by the assailants.
In a separate incident in Sibi, armed men established a blockade on the main highway near Bakhtiarabad, stopping vehicles and conducting searches. During the blockade, the armed men specifically targeted trucks carrying minerals out of Balochistan, searching them and then destroying their tyres, effectively halting their movement.
The blockade on the Bakhtiarabad highway continued for several hours before the armed men withdrew from the area. It is noteworthy that the same area had witnessed a similar armed blockade the previous day, during which vehicles supplying Pakistani security forces were targeted. That earlier attack was claimed by the Baloch Republican Guards, a Baloch nationalist armed organisation.
However, no armed group or organisation has claimed responsibility for Monday’s highway blockade and mineral truck attacks at the time of this report.
The incidents, occurring across three separate districts within a short span, reflect a pattern of escalating armed activity in Balochistan. The targeting of mineral-laden trucks is particularly significant, as armed groups in the Balochistan have increasingly focused on disrupting what they describe as the extraction and transportation of Balochistan’s natural resources by outside interests.
The Baloch Republican Guards claimed responsibility for the previous day’s attack on security forces supply vehicles in the Sibi area. However, no group has yet claimed the police station and checkpoint seizures in Pishin and Qilla Abdullah, nor Monday’s highway blockade and mineral truck attacks in Sibi.
