The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said on Saturday that five terrorists were killed during its joint operation conducted with other law enforcement agencies in Balochistan’s Duki district.

Faced with increasing attacks by militants, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, security forces have also intensified counterterrorism operations.

“Five terrorists were killed during the action,” the CTD said in a statement, noting that the joint operation was conducted in Duki’s Dhabar Pahari area.

It added that they belonged to a “banned organisation” and were involved in “attacks on coal mines, [security] forces, and citizens”.

The CTD statement further said the slain terrorists’ bodies were shifted to the Duki Civil Hospital.

Hailing the counterterrorism action by the “CTD, FC [Frontier Constabulary] and other LEAs”, Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti expressed his satisfaction over the operation.

“State institutions are fully active against terrorism,” he said in a statement, pledging that “every conspiracy to destabilise Balochistan will be thwarted”.

CM Bugti said the provincial government was taking “every possible action” to protect people’s lives and property. “Indiscriminate action will also be taken against those facilitating the terrorists,” he added.

“Anti-peace elements will not be tolerated under any circumstances,” the chief minister asserted, vowing that the province’s “journey towards peace and development” would continue.

The CTD operation comes days after Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir vowed to remove “whatever stands in the way of Pakistan’s progress” and reaffirmed the state’s determination to counter terrorism.

“Do Pakistan’s enemies think that a handful of terrorists can decide the fate of Pakistan?” he said, adding that “even ten generations of terrorists cannot harm Balochistan and Pakistan”.

In the most recent major attack, at least three policemen were martyred and 20 others were injured on Tuesday morning as a blast targeted a vehicle of the Balochistan Constabulary in Balochistan’s Mastung district.

Militant violence and security operations intensified in the country in March, with the number of militant attacks surpassing 100 for the first time since November 2014, according to a report by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (Picss).

Pakistan ranked second in the Global Terrorism Index 2025, with the number of deaths in terrorist attacks rising by 45 per cent over the past year to 1,081.