QUETTA — Police across Balochistan have been placed on high alert after a coordinated assault by heavily armed militants on a city police station and the offices of the Counter-Terrorism Department in Kharan late Saturday night, an attack that has left security officials scrambling to assess the damage and hunt down those responsible.
According to officials, the attackers entered Kharan city under cover of darkness and stormed the local police station first, where they ransacked official records before setting the building on fire. In a coordinated move, another group of attackers hit the nearby CTD office at roughly the same time, destroying operational records there as well before setting that building ablaze too. The near-simultaneous timing of the two assaults has led investigators to believe the attack was carefully planned rather than opportunistic.
Armed men attacked police and #CTD stations in #Kharan, #Balochistan. According to sources, a large number of attackers entered the city at night and targeted police installations. https://t.co/FN4l0GCNIA
— AliHamed Baloch (@AlihamedBa99829) August 2, 2026
As word of the assault spread, joint contingents of the Frontier Corps and Balochistan Police rushed to Kharan and engaged the attackers across several sectors of the city. What followed was a prolonged and intense exchange of gunfire that stretched late into the night, as security personnel worked to contain the militants and prevent them from moving deeper into populated areas. Heavy contingents of FC and police personnel fanned out to seal off entry and exit points around Kharan, forming a security grid meant to trap the attackers inside the city while also securing other government installations that officials feared could be targeted next.
Despite the scale of the assault, officials say no casualties were reported, either during the exchange of gunfire or in the initial attacks on the two buildings, a detail authorities have described as fortunate given how heavily armed the attacking group was reported to be. The militants, said to number in significant strength, ultimately managed to slip out of the urban perimeter under the cover of night before security forces could close the net completely. In the aftermath, security forces launched a wide search operation to track down the fugitives, combing surrounding areas in an effort to locate the group before they could regroup or strike elsewhere.
The attack has prompted an immediate and province-wide response from Balochistan’s police leadership. In the hours following the Kharan assault, provincial authorities issued a formal high-alert directive covering every police district in Balochistan. Under the new orders, all police officers and support staff have been instructed to report immediately to their respective stations, effectively cancelling leave and putting the entire force on standby footing. Personnel have also been told to remain fully armed at all times and ready for emergency tactical deployment should further attacks occur elsewhere in the province.
Alongside these personnel measures, authorities have imposed strict new movement protocols, placing tight restrictions on non-essential administrative travel and vehicle movement as a precaution while the security situation remains volatile. Officials say the goal is to reduce unnecessary exposure of police assets while the manhunt for the Kharan attackers continues.
“All personnel across Balochistan have been instructed to remain on absolute alert, fully armed, and prepared for immediate deployment to safeguard public infrastructure and respond to further threats,” the Balochistan Police Department said in a security advisory issued in the wake of the attack.
Investigation teams have since moved into both the police station and the CTD office to assess the extent of the damage done to government records, many of which are believed to have been destroyed in the fires set by the attackers. Meanwhile, joint intelligence-led search sweeps are continuing across Kharan district as security forces work to identify the attackers, trace their escape route, and determine whether the group remains in the area or has moved on to another part of the province. No arrests have been announced so far, and officials say the investigation and search operations remain ongoing.
