Eight terrorists were shot dead by the security forces after they tried to attack the Gwadar Port Authority complex on Wednesday, Chief Minister Balochistan Sarfraz Bugti said.

The militants stormed the Gwadar Port Authority Complex in the rugged southwestern province which houses offices of different government departments, intelligence agencies, and paramilitary forces, said Saeed Ahmed Umrani, a government commissioner.

“All of them have been neutralised by security forces,” Bugti wrote in a post on X. “The message is loud and clear. Whosever chooses to use violence will see no mercy from the state.”

The CM also hailed the law enforcement forces for successfully foiling the attack on Gwadar Port Authority Complex - key to the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

China has invested heavily in mineral-rich Balochistan, including developing Gwadar, despite a decades-long insurgency.

Eight terrorists killed in North Waziristan IBO: ISPR

“Attackers carried out many blasts,” Saeed Ahmed Umrani told Reuters, adding that it was followed with a gun attack. He said the army and police responded timely to the attackers.

The commissioner earlier said he had received reports that seven of the attackers had been killed, adding authorities were trying to confirm reports of a soldier’s death.

Meanwhile, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent of several militant groups in Balochistan, claimed responsibility for the assault in a statement, saying its militants attacked Pakistan intelligence agencies’ offices.

The deep-water port also encompasses roads and energy projects and is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Chinese targets have previously come under attack by several militant groups in Pakistan.

Last year, two separatist militants were killed when they attacked a convoy carrying Chinese workers to a Beijing-financed port project in Gwadar.

During another high-profile attack in 2022, at least four persons, three of them Chinese nationals, were killed and four others were injured when an explosion ripped through a van outside the Confucius Institute on the campus of the University of Karachi.

In response to the threat presented by militants, Pakistan’s military has stepped up counterterrorism operations in Balochistan.

In February, the military killed 24 militants in Balochistan. Four law enforcement personnel and two civilians were also killed, the statement said then.