Balochistan: Dera Bugti military offensives intensified

QUETTA: The ongoing military offensive in Dera Bugti continued for the fourth day, after the visit and orders of Corps Commander Asif Ghafoor yesterday, the operation was intensified.

Today, a convoy of 20 vehicles from Sibi reached the Sherani area of Uch, where the operation was started by encircling the entry area. Additionally, two more helicopters reached Sui from Kishmore.

The Pakistan military surrounded Dera Bugti from all sides. Entry and exit points are completely sealed, leaving affected residents without rations and even preventing patients from seeking medical help.

There are reports from the Sherani area that the Pakistani army has taken a father and his son Ali Bakhsh and Shah Mir into custody and disappeared, while four houses have also been set ablaze in the same area.

Twenty sheep and goats belonging to a man belonging to Shalawani, a sub-branch of the Bugti tribe in Sui suburbs, have also been taken away by the forces in vehicles.

The Baloch Republican Party (BRP) sources say that 12 trucks of the Pakistan army returned to Sui Army cantonment loaded with cattle which they looted from shepherds in the Rustam Darbar area of Dera Bugti.

The BRP Media cell reported on X (formerly Twitter) that the Pakistani army has displaced twenty families of the Bakhlani clan, Bugti tribe, from their homes in the Asreli area of Dera Bugti. These poor families were compelled to leave behind their crops, upon which their livelihoods depended.

In the past four days of ongoing offensives, Pakistan forces have abducted more than twenty people including a local councilor.

The Pakistan government sources claim that the Pakistan military launched a rescue operation to recover six footballers who were abducted during the weekend while on their way from Sui Dera Bugti to Sibi.

The footballers remained missing at the time of filing this report.

The Baloch Liberation Tiger (BLT) a pro-freedom armed organisation has accepted responsibility for arresting the footballers and accused them of being state agents collaborating with Pakistan forces.

The BLT also claimed to have carried out attacks on the Pakistan army inflicting heavy casualties including damaging a helicopter since the start of fresh offensives.