https://arab.news/mgjy4
- Pakistan military to hold in-camera briefing of parliamentary committee on country’s prevalent security situation
- Meeting takes place after separatist militants stormed train in Balochistan last week, held over 400 passengers hostage
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Parliamentary Committee on National Security will hold an in-camera meeting today, Tuesday, to discuss surging attacks in the country’s western provinces bordering Afghanistan and Iran, particularly Balochistan.
The meeting takes place amid a sharp rise in militant attacks last week in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province. The most prominent of these attacks was led by the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) outfit last Tuesday, whose fighters stormed the Jaffar Express train in a remote mountain pass in Balochistan and held over 400 passengers hostage. The military launched an operation and after a day-long stand-off, rescued 354 hostages and killed 33 insurgents. A final count showed 23 soldiers, three railway employees and five passengers had died in the attack.
Violence persisted in the southwestern province as three paramilitary soldiers were among five killed in a suicide blast in Balochistan’s Nushki district on Sunday. The escalation in attacks prompted Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq to convene a session of the parliamentary panel on Tuesday at Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s advice.
“An in-camera meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security will be held at the Parliament House in Islamabad at 11 a.m. today,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
The state-run media said a “comprehensive briefing” on the country’s security situation will be given to committee members by the military leadership, which would include parliamentary leaders from all political parties and members of the federal cabinet.
Oil-and-mineral-rich Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and least populated province, has been plagued by a long-running, low-level insurgency where ethnic Baloch separatists accuse the central government of denying locals of a share in the province’s resources. Islamabad and Pakistan’s military strongly reject the allegations.
The military has a huge presence in Balochistan and has long run intelligence-based operations against insurgent groups such as the BLA, who have escalated attacks in recent months on the military and nationals from longtime ally China, which is building key projects in the region, including a port at Gwadar.
More than 50 people, including security forces, were killed in August last year in a string of assaults in Balochistan claimed by the BLA.
Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province bordering Afghanistan has also seen a sharp rise in militant attacks since November 2022, when a fragile truce between the state and the Pakistani Taliban or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) broke down.
The TTP has carried out some of the deadliest attacks against Pakistan’s security forces and civilians since 2007 in KP.
Pakistan accuses the Afghan government of sheltering TTP militants, allegations which have strained ties between the two neighbors and prompted strong denials from Kabul.