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QUETTA: Dozens of militants armed with guns and rockets stormed the Mastung town in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, a government spokesman and health officials said on Tuesday, with a teenager killed and 11 others injured in the attack.

The militants stormed a bank, tehsil and other offices, Balochistan government spokesman Shahid Rind said, adding that gunfire by militants killed a 16-year-old boy and injured seven others.

Dr. Saeed Meerwani, medical superintendent of Mastung District Headquarters Hospital, told one body and three injured were brought to the hospital, while Arbab Awais Kasi, a spokesman for Nawab Ghous Bukhsh Raisani Hospital, said the facility treated and discharged eight injured persons.

“FC [Frontier Corps paramilitary], CTD [Counter-Terrorism Department] and Levies [paramilitary] surrounded the area and the militants retreated,” Rind said in a statement.

“Two terrorists were killed and three were injured in the exchange of fire between security forces and terrorists.”

Rind said the attack was carried out by “Fitna Al-Hindustan,” a reference to alleged Indian-backed Baloch separatist groups in the region. New Delhi denies supporting militancy in Pakistan.

Balochistan has long been the scene of a low-level insurgency by separatists seeking independence from the central government. The province is also home to militants linked to the Pakistani Taliban and the Daesh (Islamic State) group.

“The swift response by security forces helped prevent further loss of lives,” Rind said. “A full-scale operation is underway against the terrorists present in the area.”

He said security agencies have also started searching for the facilitators of the attackers.

In recent months, the separatists have mounted their attacks against the government and security forces in Balochistan, where the military has a huge presence in and has long run intelligence-based operations against groups such as the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).

In March, the BLA separatist hijacked a train with hundreds of passengers aboard near Balochistan’s Bolan Pass, which resulted in the deaths of 23 soldiers, three railway employees and five passengers. At least 33 insurgents were also killed.

More than 50 people, including security forces, were killed in August last year in a string of coordinated assaults in the province that were claimed by the BLA.

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday announced it had arrested an agent involved in the Morocco boat tragedy, in which dozens of Pakistanis attempting to travel illegally to Europe had drowned near the African country’s coast earlier this year.

The boat had set off from Mauritania in January with 86 migrants on board, among them 66 Pakistanis, for the Canary Islands administered by Spain, international rights group Walking Borders had said. Moroccan authorities said on January 16 that 36 people were rescued from the vessel, while Pakistan confirmed survivors of the tragedy included 22 of its nationals.

Pakistani authorities have launched a crackdown against agents involved in illegally sending impoverished migrants through dangerous sea routes by offering them a chance at a better life in Europe. The FIA said its Faisalabad chapter arrested Ghulam Mustafa, a land route agent who was wanted for his involvement in the Morocco boat tragedy.

“Since 2023, the suspect had been working as a land route agent to send people to Europe via the maritime route through Morocco,” the FIA said in a press release.

It said Mustafa was part of the same network of human smugglers Abdul Ghaffar and Muhammad Sarfaraz, who were arrested by the FIA in February, for smuggling the migrants on the same boat that met an accident near Morocco.

The FIA said Mustafa, Ghaffar and Sarfraz were in contact with notorious African human smuggler Abubakar.

“The suspects were involved in extorting millions of rupees from Pakistani citizens under the pretext of sending them to Spain,” the statement said. “They were found to be facilitating the illegal transport of citizens to Spain via sea routes.”

A record 10,457 migrants, or 30 people a day, died trying to reach Spain in 2024. Most of them died while attempting to cross the Atlantic route from West African countries such as Mauritania and Senegal to the Canary Islands, according to Walking Borders.

In 2023, hundreds of migrants, including 262 Pakistanis, drowned when an overcrowded vessel sank in international waters off the southwestern Greek town of Pylos, marking one of the deadliest boat disasters ever recorded in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Pakistani government has ramped up efforts in recent months to combat human smugglers facilitating dangerous journeys for illegal immigrants to Europe, resulting in several arrests.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also urged increased collaboration with international agencies like Interpol to ensure swift action against human trafficking networks.