Militants attack police station, banks in southwest Pakistan, boy killed

Dozens of militants armed with guns and rockets launched an attack on a police station and set fire to two banks in the restive southwestern Pakistani district of Mastung on July 1. 

The violence left a young boy dead and nine others wounded, officials confirmed, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

Jan Mohammad, a local government official, said the boy was killed when the attackers opened fire indiscriminately on civilians during the assault. Security forces engaged the militants in a gunfight, with some of the attackers reportedly killed in the exchange.

Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the provincial government, said a security operation had been initiated to track down those responsible.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on the banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which frequently targets security personnel and civilians in Balochistan and beyond. The BLA was designated a terrorist organisation by the United States in 2019.

Balochistan has long been affected by a low-level insurgency involving separatist groups demanding independence from Pakistan’s central government. The region is also a base for militants linked to the Pakistani Taliban and ISIS.

By Aghakazim Guliyev