Balochistan CM Rules Out Talks With Insurgents, Vows Operations Will Continue

The chief minister of Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan has ruled out any negotiations with insurgents, signalling that security operations will continue in a region where hundreds of militants have been killed in recent months.

Sarfraz Bugti said in a statement that the "fight against terrorism would continue until the last terrorist is eliminated" in Balochistan. "There will be no negotiations with terrorists, those who have taken up arms against Pakistan and those raising slogans for the country's disintegration," he said.

His remarks came amid a rise in attacks by the Baloch Liberation Army, which the United States has designated as a foreign terrorist organisation. Bugti said the time had come for "major surgery" to eliminate terrorism.

"We are in a state of war," he said, adding that authorities had never claimed everything in Balochistan was normal. He said security forces were performing their duties under extremely difficult conditions in the province, and that all state institutions were working in complete coordination against terrorism.

Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province by area but its least populated, has long faced a separatist insurgency by ethnic Baloch groups that regularly target security forces and civilians working on development projects. While the federal government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence has persisted.

Some Balochis have complained of discrimination by the government, and there are deep grievances over enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and the exploitation of the province's abundant natural resources.

Several regional political parties and activists have called in recent years for dialogue with insurgent groups, but the BLA and other Baloch groups have not sought talks. No spokesman for the group was immediately available for comment.

Pakistan's federal government and officials in Balochistan have rejected such calls for dialogue, saying leniency could be considered only for militants who surrender. Some BLA leaders and their associates have surrendered at ceremonies, where they laid down their weapons and were welcomed by local officials.

In 2025, the BLA killed 18 paramilitary security forces in one of the deadliest coordinated attacks in Balochistan.