A group of armed men attacked the FC headquarters in the Qilla Saifullah area of Northern Balochistan on the night of Friday and reportedly captured the security facility.
According to reports, the heavily armed men attacked the headquarters of the Frontier Corps (FC), a Pakistani paramilitary force, in Muslim Bagh town of Qilla Saifullah. Heavy gunfire and explosions have been heard, while the attackers are still in the headquarters.
Government officials have confirmed the attack and said that there is a major attack that started early in the morning on Friday in Balochistan — more than two dozen security personnel of Pakistani forces are reported to have been killed in the attack, while two suicide bombers blew themselves up as soon as they entered the FC camp.
Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP), a recently emerged militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement released to the media through its spokesman Mullah Qasim.
TJP spokesman told media that its “fidayeen” (suicide attackers) are still inside the forces’ camp, while according to reports, the attackers have captured the weapons depot of the Pakistani forces.
The group claimed that more than 40 Pakistani soldiers were killed during the attack. However, ISPR confirmed only two casualties among the Pakistani soldiers.
According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Corps Commander 12 Corps is directly supervising the operation against the “terrorists” in Muslim Bagh.
Earlier, such attacks have been carried out by Baloch pro-independence armed groups in Balochistan, where on the night of 2nd February last year, about 16 “fidayeen” of Baloch Liberation Army’s (BLA) Majeed Brigade attacked and captured two headquarters of FC in Noshki and Panjgur districts.
The BLA attack continued for four days where Noshki FC camp remained in the control of BLA attackers for 20 hours. While in Panjgur, the BLA fighters remained inside the camp for four days, and on April 5, the BLA announced the end of the operation with the “martyrdom of its comrades”.
Baloch Liberation Army spokesman Jeeyand Baloch said in a detailed statement about the attacks that 195 soldiers were killed in both attacks, damaged forces’ property, drone aircraft, and helicopters, and dozens of Pakistan army personnel were left wounded.
According to Dawn News, over the past few months, the law and order situation in Pakistan has worsened, with “terrorist” groups executing attacks with near impunity across the country.
According to statistics released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based think-tank, January 2023 remained one of the deadliest months since July 2018, as 134 people lost their lives — a 139 percent spike — and 254 received injuries in at least 44 militant attacks across the country.