#balochistan

#balochistan

On the evening of March 13, drones struck three locations across Pakistan. Two children were wounded in Quetta. Civilians were also injured in Kohat and in Rawalpindi, the garrison city that houses the headquarters of Pakistan's armed forces and neighbours the capital, Islamabad. Pakistan's military said the drones were intercepted before reaching their targets.

Stretching across Pakistan's southwestern border, the mineral-rich province of Balochistan is the country's largest and poorest region, and the site of its longest-running sub-national conflict. Balochistan's relationship with the Pakistani state has been uneasy almost since Pakistan came into being in August 1947, following the partition of the subcontinent after the end of colonial rule. The province has witnessed violence since it formally became part of Pakistan a year later in 1948.

When meeting United States President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in September, Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, opened a briefcase with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif standing next to him. Inside were a set of glistening minerals. Their display was part of Pakistan's latest offer to the Trump administration: The country was willing to open up its minerals to US investment.

Pakistan's military has carried out air strikes in Afghanistan, targeting what it called camps and hideouts belonging to armed groups behind a spate of recent attacks, including a suicide bombing that killed dozens of worshippers at a Shia mosque in Islamabad. There was no immediate comment from Afghanistan's Taliban government, but Afghan sources told Al Jazeera the strikes on Sunday hit two border provinces.

Pakistan said it carried out cross-border strikes on seven militant sites inside Afghanistan in a "retributive response" to recent suicide attacks claimed by Afghan-backed extremists, as tensions escalated between the two South Asian neighbors. Pakistan "has carried out intelligence-based selective targeting of seven terrorist camps and hideouts," the Information Ministry said early on February 22. Islamabad said it had "conclusive evidence" that recent attacks inside Pakistan were carried out by Afghan-based Pakistani Taliban extremists who were allegedly acting on instructions from "their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers."

Pakistan's military has concluded a weeklong security operation in the restive southwestern Balochistan province, claiming the deaths of 216 fighters in targeted offensives. A military statement on Thursday said following the province-wide attacks by the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), carried out to destabilise the peace of Balochistan, security forces launched Operation Radd-ul-Fitna-1 (countering chaos) to dismantle terrorist sleeper cells through sustained combing and sanitisation operations through meticulous planning and actionable intelligence.

Ex-players and politicians urge the ICC to step in and mend ties amid the ongoing regional cricket crisis. Pakistan's decision to boycott their T20 World Cup game against India has been termed a political move, with cricketers and politicians in both countries and around the world urging the International Cricket Council (ICC) to resolve the dispute. The Pakistani government on Sunday issued a statement saying its men's cricket team will participate in the global tournament but will not take the field in the match against archrivals India on February 15.

Pakistan has been battling a separatist movement in Balochistan for decades, where rebels target state forces, foreign nationals and non-locals. At least eight policemen have been killed by suspected separatists who launched coordinated attacks in multiple cities across Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, officials said. Several police stations in the provincial capital of Quetta were targeted by alleged ethnic Baloch gunmen in an attack that began at about 3am local time (01:00 GMT) on Sunday.

Pakistan says it has launched strikes on armed groups in Afghanistan after blaming recent suicide bombings, including attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, on fighters it says are operating from its neighbour's territory. Kabul has repeatedly denied allowing armed groups to use Afghan territory to stage attacks in Pakistan. Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence on Sunday said dozens of innocent civilians, including women and children, were martyred and wounded when strikes hit a school and homes in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika.

The spokesperson of the Taliban regime in Kabul, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement on social media platform X that the attacks "killed and wounded dozens, including women and children." He called Pakistan's claim of killing 70 militants "inaccurate." Islamabad did not say precisely which areas it targeted or provide additional details. The Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement that "various civilian areas" in the provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika in eastern Afghanistan were hit, including a religious madrassa and multiple civilian homes.

People started running and screaming, scattered in all directions. There was smoke and blood all over the floor and on the prayer mats. I lost my brother Abbas in the incident,