Five Pakistan Army personnel were martyred in a blast on Sunday from an improvised explosive device (IED) during a clearance operation in Balochistan’s Kahan area, the military’s media wing confirmed.
A press release from the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the operation was underway since Saturday when the IED exploded close to the leading party.
“Resultantly, Captain Fahad along with four other brave sons of soil, Lance Naik Imtiaz, Sepoy Asghar, Sepoy Mehran and Sepoy Shamoon, have embraced martyrdom, laying their lives in defence of the motherland against an externally perpetrated threat of terrorism,” the press release reads.
The ISPR said that a sanitisation operation was underway in the area to apprehend the perpetrators.
“Such cowardly acts by inimical elements cannot sabotage the hard-earned peace and prosperity in Balochistan.
“Security forces remain determined to challenge their nefarious designs, even at the cost of blood and lives,” the ISPR said.
The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the banned militant Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) group. The BLA is a rebel group operating against the Pakistani state in Balochistan. BLA’s stated aim is complete independence for Balochistan.
Earlier in the day, the ISPR said a terrorist was killed and a soldier martyred during an exchange of fire between militants and security forces in an intelligence-based operation in the Sambaza area of Balochistan’s Zhob district.
According to a statement issued by the ISPR on Sunday morning, the operation, launched on the basis of “credible information”, was continuing for the last 96 hours.
The objective was to “deny terrorists the use of few suspected routes to move across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to sneak into KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) along the interprovincial boundary and target citizens and security forces”, the ISPR added.
As a result of the continuous surveillance and sanitation of the area, a group of terrorists was intercepted in the early hours of Sunday, the ISPR said, adding that “during the establishment of blocking positions to deny the terrorists escape routes, the militants opened fire on the security forces”.
In the ensuing exchange of fire, a terrorist was killed while Sepoy Haq Nawaz was martyred. Two soldiers sustained were injured in the gunfight, the ISPR statement said.
Martyred Sepoy Haq Nawaz. — ISPR
It added that the terrorists were supported by their facilitators from across the border as well through firing and that the sanitisation operation continued in the area to apprehend the remaining perpetrators.
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