What happened
Pakistan Armed Forces concluded a three-day battle for Nushki in Balochistan on 4 February 2026, using drones and helicopters to drive Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) fighters out of the district headquarters town they had seized during a wave of coordinated attacks that began before dawn on 31 January. The desert town of roughly 50,000 people was secured by local law enforcement after the battle in which seven police officers were killed, according to security officials and the Balochistan Constabulary.
The recapture ended the central ground fight of Operation Radd-ul-Fitna-1, the code-named Pakistani counter-offensive that the military said it had launched on 29 January after a wave of attacks across at least nine districts including Quetta, Mastung, Nushki, Pasni, Kharan, Gwadar, Panjgur, Tump and Dalbandin. (See KhabarWire’s coverage of the prior Balochistan attacks on 29 January.) The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the operation had killed 216 militants overall, including three suicide bombers and the BLA field commanders Farooq (alias “Soro”), Adeel and Waseem who had been killed in the earlier Panjgur raid. It said troops recovered “a large cache of foreign-origin weapons, ammunition, explosives, and equipment” and that preliminary analysis pointed to “systematic external facilitation and logistical support.”
Why it matters
Nushki was the town where BLA fighters held ground longest. They had taken the deputy commissioner, Muhammad Hussain Hazara, and assistant commissioner, Maria Shamaoon, hostage, stormed the police lines, the judicial complex and a Federal Constabulary camp, and came within roughly one kilometre of the provincial chief minister’s office in Quetta before being repelled, according to the police account. Hazara and Shamaoon were released by the BLA after the recapture, and Shamaoon told reporters that “on January 31, at around 5:30 in the morning, some miscreants snuck into our homes and took over the property.”
The recapture allowed the provincial government to lift the one-month Section 144 ban on gatherings of five or more people in stages, restart the polio vaccination campaign across most of Balochistan, and resume Pakistan Railways services between Quetta and the rest of the country after a four-day suspension. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti, speaking at a press conference in Quetta, said the clearance of Nushki had been the longest of any town hit in the wave, but that the town was “completely clear now.”
What is still uncertain
The exact final death toll from the 29 January–5 February wave remains contested. Pakistani officials put the toll at 22 security personnel and 36 civilians killed, with 216 militants killed in the counter-operation. The BLA claimed to have killed 280 security personnel and lost 92 of its own fighters; both figures are unverified independently. Investigators were still identifying the bodies of militants recovered from Nushki, Quetta and the other affected districts on 4 February, and the federal government had not yet released a verified breakdown by district.
The political fallout was also unresolved. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi publicly blamed India, saying “India planned these attacks along with these terrorists,” and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif described the violence as “terrorism being run under foreign patronage.” Balochistan National Party-Mengal chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal rejected the framing, saying “I have never seen such a dangerous situation in my entire life.” The UN Security Council held the BLA responsible; the US embassy, China, Turkey, Qatar and France issued separate statements of solidarity with Pakistan.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of contemporaneous published reporting on the Jan–Feb 2026 Balochistan attacks, not eyewitness reporting. Sources were reviewed on 5 February 2026.
- BBC News — Deadly gun and bomb attacks hit Pakistan's Balochistan province1 February 2026 · CM Bugti casualty figures, the BLA's Herof operation claim, and the federal accusation of Indian backing.
- Dawn — No quarter for terrorists ruining Balochistan peace2 February 2026 · Saleem Shahid reporting from Quetta; CM Bugti's confirmation that Nushki "is completely clear now," Section 144 imposition, and the mop-up operation.
- Dawn — 92 terrorists killed as attacks repulsed in Balochistan1 February 2026 · ISPR-stated casualty figures and the list of affected districts including Nushki, Quetta, Mastung, Gwadar and Pasni.
