QUETTA: Security forces killed three militants belonging to Fitna al Hindustan, including a commander identified as Naqeeb, during an operation in Balochistan’s Mastung district on Sunday, according to security sources quoted by the Associated Press of Pakistan and Radio Pakistan.
Security sources said the operation was carried out against a vehicle being used by Fitna al Hindustan, which was tracked and then engaged using a quadcopter. The strike killed all three occupants, including the commander, and the vehicle was completely destroyed, the sources added.
The use of an unmanned quadcopter rather than a ground assault points to the increasingly technology-led posture adopted by security agencies in Balochistan’s difficult terrain, where militant groups have relied on mobility along remote district roads to evade conventional cordon-and-search operations.
Security sources said the forces remain resolute in their commitment to eliminating terrorism, adding that operations will continue until the last terrorist is eliminated.
In a separate action reported by Radio Pakistan, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Balochistan killed six militants belonging to a banned outfit during an operation in Pishin district.
According to a CTD spokesperson, four CTD personnel were also injured during the exchange. A large quantity of arms and ammunition was recovered from the militants’ possession. The spokesperson said those killed in the Pishin operation had been involved in attacks on security forces in the area.
Taken together, the two operations account for nine militants killed in Balochistan within the same reporting cycle — a tempo that underlines how sustained the current counter-terrorism campaign in the province has become.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif expressed gratitude over the successful operation against terrorists in Mastung. In her statement issued from Lahore, the Chief Minister paid tribute to the security forces for eliminating several terrorists, including a commander, during the operation.
The Punjab government’s response reflects how closely Balochistan’s security situation is now tracked in Lahore. The province has itself tightened public-order controls in recent days, with Section 144 imposed across Punjab until September 17 amid mounting terror alerts.
Mastung, which sits on the approach routes linking Quetta to central Balochistan, and Pishin, close to the Afghan frontier, have both figured repeatedly in militant attacks on convoys, labourers and law-enforcement personnel. Officials use the term “Fitna al Hindustan” to describe militants they accuse of operating with foreign backing in the province.
For residents of the two districts, the immediate consequence of high-tempo operations is usually a tightening of movement along highways and intermittent restrictions on communication services. The wider civic question — whether kinetic operations are matched by the development spending and policing capacity that Balochistan’s districts have long demanded — remains unresolved.
Security sources have not indicated whether any suspects were detained alongside the three killed in Mastung, and no independent verification of the casualty figures was available at the time of filing.
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