Who are the Baloch separatists that Pakistan targeted in Iran?

The conflict in West Asia is likely to spread with Iran fuelling tensions. After attacking targets in Iraq and Syria, Iran carried out airstrikes on the militant group Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan. Islamabad had warned of “serious consequences” and now on Thursday has reportedly struck targets in Iran. A statement released by the Pakistan ministry of foreign affairs said that it “undertook a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts in Siestan-o-Baluchistan province of Iran”. Several terrorists were killed in the intelligence-based operation codenamed ‘Marg Bar Sarmachar ’, a phrase which loosely translates to the “death of guerilla fighters”. According to reports in local media, Pakistan has attacked the posts of two Baloch separatist groups – the Balochistan Liberation Front and the Balochistan Liberation Army. News agency AFP reported citing Pakistan intelligence officials that the country’s military conducted retaliatory strikes against Iran. What’s going on between Iran and Pakistan? And what are the separatist groups that Pakistan has targeted in Iran? What do we know about Pakistan’s airstrikes in Iran? The Pakistani military conducted a series of “highly co-ordinated” retaliatory strikes against “terrorist hideouts” inside Iran on Thursday morning, said Pakistan’s foreign ministry office. A number of terrorists were killed in the operations, it says. Nine people have been killed in the Pakistan strikes, claims Iranian media said that four children, all non-Iranians, were killed after several missiles hit a village in the Sistan-Baluchistan province that borders Pakistan, Reuters reports. [caption id=“attachment_13628332” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Police officers stand guard at the main entry gate of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Islamabad. Pakistan’s air force launched retaliatory airstrikes early Thursday on Iran allegedly targeting militant positions. AP[/caption] According to IRNA, several explosions were heard in the vicinity of Saravan, a city in the southeastern Iranian province near the Pakistan border. An “informed official” was quoted as telling Iran’s state media. “Iran demands an immediate explanation from the Pakistani authorities about this incident”. Why did Pakistan strike Iran? The attack was in retaliation to Iran’s missile and drone strikes in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Tuesday night. The Pakistan ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement, “Over the last several years, in our engagements with Iran, Pakistan has consistently shared its serious concerns about the safe havens and sanctuaries enjoyed by Pakistani origin terrorists calling themselves Sarmachars on the ungoverned spaces inside Iran. Pakistan also shared multiple dossiers with concrete evidence of the presence and activities of these terrorists.” “However, because of lack of action on our serious concerns, these so-called Sarmachars continued to spill the blood of innocent Pakistanis with impunity. This morning’s action was taken in light of credible intelligence of impending large-scale terrorist activities by these so-called Sarmachars,” it added. Pakistan has not named the terror groups it targeted. According to a report on NDTV, the posts of Baloch separatist groups –the Balochistan Liberation Front and the Balochistan Liberation Army – were hit near the city of Saravan in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province.

🔊: PR NO. 1️⃣7️⃣/2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣4️⃣

Operation Marg Bar Sarmachar

🔗⬇️ https://t.co/1n5BvtEZBZ pic.twitter.com/VVf5VwL00L

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) January 18, 2024

What do we know about Baloch separatist groups? A separatist movement in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province has given rise to several insurgent groups like the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF). The BLA is the largest and the oldest surviving insurgent group in the region and has been categorised as a terrorist group by Pakistan, the United States and the United Kingdom, according to a report in ThePrint. The outfit seeks independence from Pakistan and the formation of a separate state of “Greater Balochistan”. They believe that the Pakistani state has been exploiting resources in the region. Balochistan borders Afghanistan to the north, Iran to the west and has a long coastline on the Arabian Sea. The BLA reportedly began operations in 2000 and is an armed group with a cadre of at least 6,000, according to ThePrint report. They are influenced by the radical Marxist idealogy and some of its leaders are allegedly trained in Russia. [caption id=“attachment_13628352” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A car leaves the district headquarters hospital in Panjgur town of Balochistan province on 17 January,   where victims of an Iranian air strike were moved. AFP[/caption] The insurgent group has since carried out several attacks in Pakistan. It rose to prominence in 2003 after a series of attacks in the Balochistan province which led to the deaths of several police officials and non-native residents. Two years later, the BLA attacked a federal paramilitary camp when the then-President Pervez Musharaff was visiting, prompting the government to declare it a terrorist group. After the attack, Pakistan’s security forces went after the BLA and killed several leaders. Its main leader Balach Marri, the scion of an influential Baloch family, was killed in Afghanistan in 2007. The separatist outfit was part of a ceasefire agreement with the Pakistan government but it it withdrew in January 2009 as it “was upset that the Pakistani government had made no meaningful attempts to begin negotiations,” according to a Standford University study. Since then attacks have continued across Pakistan. The development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which passes through Balochistan, has left the BLA disgruntled. It has been accused of targeting Chinese infrastructure including an attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi in 2018, which left four people dead. It has been regularly attacking Chinese citizens working in Pakistan, saying it does so because Beijing ignored warnings not to enter deals and agreements regarding Balochistan before the province had been “liberated”. [caption id=“attachment_13628392” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Militant tribesmen carry their weapons during routine training in the autonomous region of Kohlu in the southeast of Balochistan province. File photo/Reuters[/caption] The other separatist group is the Balochistan Liberation Front. According to a note by Standford University, BLF is an “ethnic-separatist political front and militant organisation” fighting for an independent state. It was founded in Damascus, Syria by Juma Khan Marri in 1964 and four years later, it joined the Iranian Balochi Revolt, an insurgency of Balochi groups fighting the Iranian government. It tried to destabilise Iran and had support from the Iraqi government which publically supplied the outfit arms. In 1973, the BLF was decimated from five years of fighting and negotiated with the Shah of Iran. After the conflict ended, it turned its attention to inciting insurgency against the Pakistan state, demanding independence for Balochistan. The Independent Movement of Balochistan continued from 1973 to 1977 and in response to the rebellion, then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto dismissed the Balochi provincial government, prompting the BLF and other Balochi insurgent groups to attack several Pakistani security forces convoys, the Standford note says. Pakistan deployed troops in the province and the BLF went into exile in Afghanistan, putting an end to the insurgency. But the group did not disband and re-emerged in 2003 killing three Chinese foreign workers. It has since then carried out several attacks against Pakistan security forces and foreign nationals. It is not Pakistan’s Balochistan province alone even Iran’s neighbouring Sistan and Baluchestan province have faced a low-level insurgency by Baloch nationalists. Both Iran and Pakistan have fought militants in the Baloch region. The two countries share a common separatist enemy and it is unusual for either side to attack militants on each other’s soil, says a report in CNN.

How Iran-Pakistan ties have deteriorated Tensions between Iran and Pakistan rose after Tehran targetted two bases of the militant group Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan’s Balochistan province with missiles and drones on Tuesday night. Condemning Iran’s “violation of its airspace”, Pakistan warned the neighbouring country that such actions can have “serious consequences”. Pakistan reserves the right to respond to this “illegal act” and the responsibility for the consequences will lie “squarely” with Iran, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday. Pakistan also recalled its ambassador from Iran and stopped Tehran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad. [caption id=“attachment_13628372” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A Pakistani reads the front page of a morning newspaper covering Iran’s strike, at a stall in Islamabad, Pakistan. AP[/caption] Iran admitted carrying out a missile and drone attack on western Pakistan on Tuesday. Its foreign minister said the operation targeted the militant group Jaish al-Adli, which he described as an “Iranian terrorist group” in Pakistan. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, speaking in Davos, insisted that no Pakistani citizens had been targeted, only members of Jaish al-Adl. “We only targeted Iranian terrorists on the soil of Pakistan,” Mr Amir-Abdollahian said. But Pakistan claimed that at least children died. However, Pakistan is not alone. Iran attacked targets in Iraq and Syria earlier this week. Iran attacks and Islamabad’s retaliation come amid the Hamas-Israel war in West Asia and rising attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. And while governments insist that they do not want the conflict to spread, an escalation now appears more imminent than ever. With inputs from agencies