DID Press: Senior officials in Pakistan’s Balochistan province have announced that the provincial government has spent more than 14 billion rupees on counterterrorism efforts under the National Action Plan, the counterterrorism policy and the Provincial Action Plan.
According to the officials, the Balochistan government has enacted 18 laws and established 17 institutions and departments during this period. They also said that more than 60,000 counterterrorism operations had been conducted across the province by October, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,000 militants.
The officials added that the Counter Terrorism Department alone had killed 250 militants and arrested another 250 suspects. They said terrorist violence had claimed the lives of 101 police personnel, around 200 members of other security agencies and 551 civilians.
The figures were announced on Tuesday at a joint press conference by Ziaullah Langau, Balochistan’s provincial home affairs official; Shahid Rind, senior adviser to the chief minister on media and political affairs; and Hamza Shafqat, additional chief secretary of the province’s Home Department.
Balochistan officials also reported security measures to protect the Quetta–Rakhni, Quetta–Karachi and Quetta–Taftan highways. They expressed hope that the province’s security situation would improve over the next three to four months.
Hamza Shafqat said the Balochistan government had undertaken a series of measures over the past two years to implement the National Action Plan, the counterterrorism policy and the Provincial Action Plan.