Pakistani raid on a militant hideout in flashpoint province killed 7 insurgents, military says

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani security raid on a militant hideout in the insurgency-hit southwestern Balochistan province this week left seven insurgents dead, the military said Friday.

The raid on Wednesday in the remote Sherani district came just a day after a powerful car bomb outside the headquarters of Pakistan’s paramilitary security forces in Quetta, the Balochistan capital, killed at least 10 people and wounded 30.

The military said troops engaged in a shootout with the militants and later recovered weapons, ammunition, and explosives from the site. The statement said the killed men were from “Fitna Al-Khawarij,” a phrase the government uses for the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, and other separatist groups.

The military claimed the slain militants had backing from India, though it provided no evidence. Pakistani authorities have long accused New Delhi of supporting separatists in Balochistan as well as Pakistani Taliban fighters — allegations that India denies.

For years, Balochistan has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by separatist groups, along with attacks by the Pakistani Taliban and the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army. The separatists demand independence from Pakistan’s central government in Islamabad.

Pakistan’s security forces have also been carrying out intelligence-based operations in other flashpoint locations across the country, especially the northwest and elsewhere. On Thursday night, a roadside bomb struck a police vehicle in the northwestern city of Peshawar, wounding eight people, including four officers, police said.

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.