Separatists attack a government office and burn a police station in restive southwest Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Dozens of armed Baloch separatists seized a government office, robbed a bank and partially burned a police station in a remote district in southwestern Pakistan before fleeing when security forces arrived, police said Thursday.

The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack Wednesday in Khuzdar in Balochistan, where analysts say separatists are becoming as large a threat to national security as the Pakistani Taliban.

There were no casualties in the attack, authorities said.

Suhail Khalid, a local police officer, said the insurgents fled when security forces arrived and the situation was under control.

In recent months, Balochistan and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have experienced a surge in militant violence, most blamed on the Baloch army and the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

The Pakistani Taliban is an ally of the Afghan Taliban, which seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021. The Afghan Taliban’s takeover has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban, whose leaders and fighters are hiding in Afghanistan.

Oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but also least populated province. It is the home of the country’s ethnic Baloch minority, who say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government.