Seven armed assailants were shot dead by Pakistani security forces on Wednesday after they forcibly entered the china operated Gwadar Port Authority Complex and opened firing, according to officials.
Makran Commissioner Saeed Ahmed Umrani told local media that multiple blasts were also reported in the attack, adding that the clearance operation against the perpetrators was still under way.
A large contingent of police and security forces had reached the scene when the intense firing was ongoing.
A statement from the United Nations Department for Safety and Security said “several explosions followed by continuous firing” were reported during the attack on the china develop and operated gawadar port authority complex, adding that the facility hosts several government and paramilitary offices.
The statement added there were no immediate reports of casualties, elaborating that seven personnel from three UN agencies based in Gwadar and two UN agencies on missions were “safe and accounted for”.
No casualties have been reported so far.
The Majeed Brigade of the proscribed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Majeed Brigade, which was formed in 2011, is a particularly lethal guerilla cell of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). It was named after a guard of Pakistan’s former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was killed while attempting to assassinate the PPP founder.
Pakistan allege that the group maintains sanctuaries in areas along the Pak-Iran border and inside the Afghan territory.
The guerrilla brigade, which is the suicide squad of the BLA, mostly targets Pakistan’s security forces and Chinese infrastructures/interests in Pakistan. It also claimed responsibility for the April 2022 suicide attack outside the Karachi University’s Chinese Confucius Institute.
It also carried out a number of attacks in 2022, including those targeting Pakistan’s military camps in Balochistan’s Naushki and Panjgur districts, where the militants kept security forces engaged for three days. Twenty terrorists were killed during clearance operations after the Naushki and Panjgur attacks, the Pakistan’s military’s media affairs wing ISPR had said in a statement, adding that nine security personnel had embraced death.
The outfit had also claimed responsibility for three coordinated attacks launched using rockets and sophisticated weapons in Balochistan’s Mach town in January, some 70 kilometres from the provincial capital of Quetta. Four security personnel and two civilians killed in the clearance operation.
Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities in the past year, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan after the banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan ended its ceasefire with the Pakistan’s federal government in November 2022.
In November, 14 Pakistan Army soldiers were killed after militants attacked two vehicles of security forces in Gwadar.
According to a security report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies last month, Pakistan experienced 97 militant attacks in February, resulting in 87 fatalities and 118 injuries.
The report highlighted a significant escalation in violence in Balochistan, juxtaposed with a decline in tribal districts and mainland KP.
