CM Bugti rejects talks with terrorists, accuses India of backing insurgents
Says 145 militants killed after BLA attacks across Balochistan: Seventeen security personnel and 31 civilians killed in province-wide violence
Balochistan Chief Minister (CM) Sarfraz Bugti has said that 145 terrorists were sent to hell in almost 40 hours in Balochistan after the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) launched "coordinated attacks across 12 towns", reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Sunday.
Addressing a press conference in Quetta Sarfraz Bugti said that"17 security personnel and 31 civilians embraced martyrdom during the attacks carried out across the province."
CM Bugti said the bodies of 145 terrorists were in the custody of the authorities and revealed that terrorists in Gwadar had martyred five women and three children. The slain family belonged to Khuzdar and were Baloch, he added.
Bugti slammed hostile elements for trying to destabilise Pakistan at the behest of India and questioned whether the BLA was a registered political party with which negotiations could be held.
He said the group wanted to impose its ideology through the use of guns and reiterated that the government was not prepared to surrender even for a second.
"We will not surrender… they [terrorists] can destabilise but cannot take a single inch of our country," CM Bugti said.
Declaring that “our blood is not cheap,” the chief minister said the perpetrators would not be allowed to escape and warned that the land would be turned into hell for terrorists.
He said Balochistan would be taken towards peace and maintained that the use of force had never been carried out in the province in the manner claimed, stressing that only small, targeted operations were conducted.
He said the provincial government bears the responsibility of taking care of the children of martyrs and disclosed that authorities had received intelligence reports about the planned terrorist attacks and had launched operations a day earlier based on those reports.
Referring to security arrangements, he said terrorists believed they would be able to penetrate the Red Zone, but they failed.
He confirmed that Nushki had now been completely cleared and that operations had already been initiated earlier on intelligence information.