QUETTA, Pakistan — Pakistan’s military said it killed 92 militants after coordinated Balochistan attacks across the province left 33 civilians and security personnel dead Saturday. Officials said the strikes combined suicide bombings and gun assaults on state targets and civilians, triggering wide clearance operations and emergency measures in hospitals, Jan. 31, 2026.
According to Reuters, the military put the toll at 15 security personnel killed during operations and at least 18 civilians killed in multiple districts, with attacks reported in places including Quetta and the port city of Gwadar. The banned separatist group the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility and said it launched assaults simultaneously across the province, while Pakistan said forces prevented militants from seizing any city or strategic installation.
The Associated Press reported that attackers hit police stations, a high-security prison and paramilitary sites, and that militants also robbed banks, torched vehicles and damaged rail infrastructure, prompting Pakistan Railways to suspend some train services out of Balochistan. Police said a prison assault in Mastung freed more than 30 inmates, while other attempted raids were repelled.
One of the deadliest incidents was in Gwadar, where militants attacked a camp housing migrant workers, killing 11 people — including women and children — before security forces killed six attackers, a senior police officer told Reuters. Reuters also reported that a social media video showed the top civil administrator of Noshki saying he was in militant custody, which the news agency said it could not independently verify.
Pakistan’s military blamed the violence on “Indian-sponsored” militants and said intelligence showed the Balochistan attacks were “orchestrated and directed” from outside the country, an allegation India has denied in the past. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi separately accused India of planning the assaults, telling local media: “India is behind these attacks.” In a separate account of the day’s violence, Dawn quoted Naqvi accusing New Delhi of backing the attackers, while noting India’s past denials.
Balochistan attacks: what officials and militants are claiming
Claims and casualty figures around the Balochistan attacks remain contested. The BLA said it killed far more security personnel than Pakistan has acknowledged, while Pakistani officials said the group suffered heavy losses and failed to hold territory. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti vowed the violence would not change the government’s posture, saying, “These attacks cannot weaken our resolve against terrorism,” as cited by Al Jazeera.
Background: why the Balochistan attacks fit a longer pattern
The latest Balochistan attacks come amid a yearslong separatist insurgency in Pakistan’s largest and poorest province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan and hosts major infrastructure and port projects. In March 2024, Pakistani officials said militants launched a gun-and-bomb assault on a complex outside Gwadar’s strategic port, killing two soldiers and eight attackers, according to an earlier Reuters report.
Later that year, Reuters described one of the broadest waves of violence in years, when coordinated assaults across Balochistan targeted police outposts and transport links and pushed the death toll past 70 in August 2024, as detailed in this 2024 Reuters account.
Militant tactics have also included large-scale hostage incidents. In March 2025, Pakistani forces stormed a hijacked passenger train and ended a daylong standoff after separatist militants derailed and attacked the Jaffar Express, Reuters reported in a detailed 2025 dispatch.
International pressure has increased as well. In August 2025, the U.S. State Department designated the BLA a foreign terrorist organization, a move Pakistan welcomed, according to an AP report on the designation.
For now, Pakistani officials say security sweeps are continuing and the death toll from the Balochistan attacks could shift as authorities verify casualties and assess damage to transport and public facilities.
