Nightmare Pakistan wished upon India is now its own

As Pakistan struggles to contain a decades-old separatist insurgency in Balochistan, militants have once again unleashed a reign of terror in the southwestern province.Gunmen attacked police stations, railway lines and vehicles on highways in the restive region on August 25-26, killing at least 38 civilians, mostly from Pakistan’s Punjab province, in what is seen as the most widespread assault by ethnic insurgents in years.In retaliatory operations, 14 soldiers and police personnel lost their lives and 21 militants were also killed, according to the Pakistan army.The resource-rich province is home to a number of major China-led projects including a strategic port and a gold and copper mine.“These attacks are a well thought out plan to create anarchy in Pakistan,” the country's interior minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement.The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which seeks to create a separate independent nation, claimed responsibility for the operation that they called “Haruf” or “dark windy storm”.Incidentally, August 26 marked the death anniversary of Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Bugti, who was killed by Pakistan's security forces in 2006.Why were ethnic Punjabis targeted?In the first incident, at least 23 people from Pakistan's Punjab province were killed in a targeted attack in Musakhel district after gunmen offloaded them from buses and checked their identities.According to Musakhel assistant commissioner Najeeb Kakar, around 10 heavily-armed men blocked the inter-provincial highway in the Rarasham area of the district and offloaded passengers from several buses. The militants also torched several vehicles.Musakhel is approximately 450km northeast of Quetta, capital of Balochistan.The rebels regularly target people from the Punjab province, alleging that Punjabis are dominant in the armed forces which have been fighting the militants in the province. 112832031Senior superintendent of police Ayub Khoso said: “The passengers were told to get down from buses and shot dead after being identified from their national ID cards.”“Most of those killed belonged to southern Punjab and some are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa suggesting they were killed because of their ethnic background,” he added.In another incident, officials said that 11 people were killed in Balochistan’s Kalat, including five civilians and six security personnel.Kalat is 150km to the south of Quetta and is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Baloch tribes.Rail traffic with Quetta was suspended following blasts on a rail bridge linking the provincial capital to the rest of Pakistan. Militants also struck a rail link to neighbouring Iran, railways official Muhammad Kashif said.BLA said four suicide bombers, including a woman from the southern port district of Gwadar, had been involved in an attack on a major paramilitary base, though Pakistani authorities have yet to confirm that attack. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Not the first such attackSunday night’s highway assault was reminiscent of one in April, when gunmen killed nine people after abducting them from a bus. The same attackers had earlier killed two people and wounded six in another car that they forced to stop. Both incidents were claimed by the BLA.In May, gunmen fatally shot seven barbers, all from eastern Punjab province, apparently part of a drive to force outsiders to leave Balochistan.Although Pakistan’s largest province, Balochistan is its least populated, made up largely of high mountains. It’s also a hub for the country’s ethnic Baloch minority, whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government, a factor that has fuelled a separatist insurgency demanding independence.The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (PTI), a separate Islamic militant group, also operates in the region.The government says it has largely quelled the violence, but assaults persist with raids by security forces and counterattacks.The main player is the BLA, which both Pakistan and the United States have designated as a terrorist organisation. It opposes the Pakistani government and wants a sovereign state that includes territories in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. The BLA targets security forces in Balochistan and sometimes Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and economic hub in Sindh province next door. medium nocaption112831961BLA joins hands with Pakistani TalibanThe BLA was emboldened by the Pakistani Taliban, ending a ceasefire with the government in November 2022 and ordering their fighters to resume attacks on the military. Islamabad-based analyst Abdullah Khan told the Associated Press the BLA is operating in the province with the support of other groups.Last December, the leader of another insurgent group said he had surrendered to authorities with some 70 of his followers. Sarfraz Bungulzai, from the Baloch National Army, declared his regret for his role in kidnapping civilians for ransom and killing unarmed people.The volatile relationship between Iran and Pakistan compounds the insecurity and instability. They share a 900km, largely lawless border where smugglers and fighters roam freely.Insurgencies on either side of the Iran-Pakistan border have frustrated both countries. Their governments suspect each other of supporting — or at least tolerating — some of the groups operating on the other side of the border. medium nocaption112831660Is BLA growing stronger?Separatists, usually from the BLA, launch small-scale assaults on security forces and installations, with the death toll in single digits.But the coordination and tactics in the latest attacks reveal a greater level of ambition, defiance and sheer brutality. The BLA had warned people to stay away from highways ahead of the attacks — it doesn’t normally give notice.Analyst Khan said the BLA is getting better at mobilising fighters in different areas and that its operational capabilities have increased tremendously.Authorities estimate the BLA has around 3,000 fighters.Islamabad-based security analyst Syed Muhammad Ali said the latest killings are an attempt to harm the province economically, because “the weakening of Balochistan means the weakening of Pakistan”.While insurgent attacks aim to discourage people from outside the region from travelling, trading, or working in the province, they also make life harder for the Balochis by discouraging investment, aid and disrupting the flow of goods and services, Ali said.A decades-long crackdown and heavy-handed militarization to combat militancy creates additional trauma for locals, who have deep grievances about enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.Thousands protested last month against police violence, an internet shutdown and highway closures. At least one person was reportedly killed.Analyst Khan said the timing was an attempt to sabotage Pakistan’s effort to present the province as a secure place for international investment, especially by China. medium nocaption112830731Attacks on Chinese projects & peopleMassive Chinese-led infrastructure projects are also driving unrest, as separatists accuse the federal government of unfairly exploiting oil-and mineral-rich Balochistan at the expense of locals.Thousands of Chinese workers are in Pakistan, most of them involved in Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that connects south and central Asia with the Chinese capital.On March 20, separatist militants had detonated a number of bombs before launching a shooting attack and trying to storm the China-run Gwadar Port complex. Two soldiers were also killed, according to a Pakistan army statement.On March 25, BLA insurgents attacked Turbat naval airbase killing at least one paramilitary soldier while security forces shot all five of the assailants in retaliatory fire.The military base was built to provide a vital link for air transportation to support the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), part of BRI.The BLA demands that Beijing shut down the CPEC and quit Balochistan. Additionally, the Pakistani Taliban, which mostly operates in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), regularly targets Chinese workers engaged in infrastructure projects.On March 26, five Chinese nationals working on a major dam construction site were killed along with their driver when a suicide bomber targeted their vehicle.In 2021, a bus carrying engineers to the same construction site in KP was hit by a bomb, killing 13 people including nine Chinese workers.In view of repeated attacks, Beijing has asked its “iron brother” Islamabad to crack down on “terrorists”.With inputs from agencies