Karachi: Heavily-armed Baloch militants on Wednesday forcibly entered the Gwadar Port Authority Complex and opened fire while multiple explosions were also reported in the area in Pakistan's troubled Balochistan province, media reports said.
Citing Makran Commissioner Saeed Ahmed Umrani, Dawn.com reported that a large contingent of police and security forces reached the scene while intense firing is going on. Security forces foiled the attack on the Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) complex and killed the eight attackers, the Express Tribune newspaper reported, citing sources. The attackers were neutralised while trying to gain entry into the port complex, it said.
Majeed Brigade of the proscribed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for the attack, the report said. Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is home to a long-running violent insurgency. Baloch insurgent groups have previously carried out several attacks targeting the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.
Thousands of Chinese personnel are working in Pakistan on a number of projects being carried out under the aegis of the CPEC. The separatist BLA is opposed to China's investments in Balochistan and accuses China and Pakistan of exploitation of the resource-rich province. The attack comes on a day when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asserted that his government will not tolerate any acts of cross-border terrorism.
According to an annual security report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, a think tank, Pakistan witnessed 1,524 violence-related fatalities and 1,463 injuries from 789 terror attacks and counter-terror operations in 2023 marking a six-year-high record.
