Separatists attack government office; burn police station in restive southwest Pakistan

Baloch separatists attack government office and bank in Pakistan, posing a growing threat to national security.

“Dozens of armed Baloch separatists seized a government office, robbed a bank and partially burnt a police station in a remote district in southwestern Pakistan before fleeing when security forces arrived,” police said on Thursday (January 9, 2025.)

The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack on Wednesday (January 8, 2025) in Khuzdar in Balochistan, where analysts say separatists are becoming as large a threat to national security as the Pakistani Taliban. “There were no casualties in the attack,” authorities said.

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Suhail Khalid, a local police officer, said the insurgents fled when security forces arrived and the situation was under control.

In recent months, Balochistan and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have experienced a surge in militant violence, most blamed on the Baloch army and the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

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The Pakistani Taliban is an ally of the Afghan Taliban, which seized power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021. The Afghan Taliban's takeover has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban, whose leaders and fighters are hiding in Afghanistan.