Balochistan Liberation Front kills 10 Pakistani soldiers in series of attacks

Quetta, Dec 30 (IANS) The Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) claimed responsibility for a series of attacks across Balochistan — in Jhao, Barkhan, Tump and Turbat — killing ten Pakistani military personnel, local media reported on Tuesday.

These attacks carried out on Monday came less than 24 hours after operations by Baloch armed groups, including BLF, reportedly killed at least fifteen soldiers.

In a media statement, BLF spokesperson Major Gwahram Baloch said the BLF fighters carried out an ambush on a Pakistani military convoy in the Jhao area of Awaran district on December 28 afternoon.

The attack, he said, targeted an army foot patrol, a bomb-disposal team and a pickup vehicle that had assembled at the same point, The Balochistan Post reported.

According to the statement, eight enemy personnel were killed on the spot and three others critically injured.

According to the group, an armoured vehicle tasked to protect the convoy “fled during the ambush, leaving the bodies and wounded personnel behind”, adding that it would soon release video footage of the attack.

Hours after the first attack, the group said it carried out a second attack at night, targeting a military camp in the Srati-Tik area near Rakhni in Barkhan district.

The statement added that fighters used heavy weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, killing two Pakistani personnel and injuring another when the grenades hit inside the camp.

BLF said its fighters carried out a third attack earlier on December 28 in the Gomazi area of Tump in Balochistan, firing heavy shells at a forces’ checkpoint, and inflicting what it described as “casualties and material losses” to Pakistani soldiers deployed there.

In a separate attack, the group said it hurled a hand grenade targeting Pakistani Navy personnel at the main gate of a Navy camp in central Turbat in Balochistan on December 27, resulting in casualties among Pakistani troops stationed there and prompting increased patrols by Pakistani forces in the area.

BLF reiterated to continue armed attacks on Pakistani forces until the achievement of an “independent Balochistan”.

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