The 1970s operation in Balochistan was a five-year military conflict in Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan, between the Pakistan Army and Baloch separatists and tribesmen that lasted from 1973 to 1978. The conflict took the lives of 3,300 Pakistani troops, 5,300 Baloch, and thousands of civilians. This period forms a pivotal chapter in the longstanding Balochistan conflict, and is often cited as creating deep divisions between Balochistan and Islamabad that persist to the current day.