Twenty trainee officers from a police academy were abducted by unidentified armed men in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Saturday, police said.According to the police, security forces launched a widespread operation to trace the abducted individuals, who were undergoing training at a police training centre in Kalat district.No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the abduction.However, the abduction comes amid ongoing intelligence-based operations by Pakistani security forces in Balochistan province against banned separatist groups and the outlawed terror outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).According to a senior police official, the trainee officers were heading home for the weekend when armed men on motorcycles intercepted their bus on the Quetta-Karachi highway near Mastung and forced the driver to take the vehicle with them.The attackers later released the driver and three other civilians travelling on the bus but took the 20 recruits away, the official said.In July, terrorists carried out attacks at at least three locations in the province. During an attack on a police checkpoint at Mangi Dam in Ziarat, 27 police personnel were killed.The terrorists first killed nine policemen at the checkpoint and then abducted 18 others. Their bodies were later found in the Zarghoon Gar mountainous area near Ziarat.Last month, security forces killed five terrorists who had abducted 23 people from a highway checkpoint in Kalat and safely recovered the hostages.The Balochistan province bordering Afghanistan has witnessed a surge in abductions and attacks on civilians and security forces in recent years, prompting the government to intensify anti-terror operations.