Crackdown: Five suspected insurgents killed in Awaran operation

Forty-three suspects rounded up; huge cache of arms, anti-state literature seized.

QUETTA:

At least five suspected Baloch insurgents were killed and four wounded in a security operation in Jhao area of Awaran district on Wednesday. Forty-three suspected insurgents were also rounded up during the operation in the Khorto, Killi Ibrhaim and Malazai areas of Jhao – a stronghold of Baloch insurgents.

According to a statement issued by the Frontier Corps (FC), the paramilitary troops launched the operation after they were tipped off about the presence of members of banned Baloch Liberation Front in the area. FC was using two helicopters during the operation.

“Five militants were killed in a firefight while many suspects, including a commander of the banned group, were detained,” the statement said. An FC spokesperson added that they have also seized a huge cache of arms, ammunitions, motorcycles and anti-state literature.

The local police were informed before the operation was conducted. “FC troops raided houses in Jhao and detained several people,” a police official told The Express Tribune.

On the other hand, the Baloch National Movement (BNM) accused FC of launching an offensive against unarmed civilians and claimed those arrested were innocent.

In a statement issued late on Wednesday, BNM claimed FC targeted children in the Jhao area and arrested Baloch poet Hasil Hasrat.

“Security forces barged into houses and harassed innocent people… four children were injured,” claimed the BNM spokesman.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2014.