Terrorists shot dead a kidnapped Pakistani army officer as his comrades were closing in to try to rescue him in the restive southwest province of Baluchistan, the military said on Thursday.
Baluchistan has long been the scene of a low-level insurgency by the outlawed Baluchistan Liberation Army, or BLA, and other separatist groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. Although the government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in the province has persisted.
The BLA, which was designated a terrorist group by the United States in 2019, had claimed responsibility earlier this week for abducting an officer and his relatives on Tuesday while they were traveling on a remote highway near the town of Ziarat, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Quetta, the provincial capital….