 "What is the Baloch Liberation Army, the group behind the deadly attacks in Pakistan?")
Militants in Pakistan’s Balochistan province killed dozens of people on Monday.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) attacked police stations, railway lines, and vehicles on highways in what officials said was the most widespread assault by the insurgent group in years.
The BLA released a statement saying it had killed over 100 soldiers in ongoing attacks on Pakistan Army camps and military checkpoints in ‘Operation Hereof.’
The BLA said its fidayeen of ‘Majeed Brigade’ had killed over 40 soldiers in an attack on the army camp in Bela – though Pakistan’s authorities are yet to confirm this.
“Under the Baloch Liberation Army’s fidayeen operation ‘Herof,’ the fidayeen unit of the BLA’s Majeed Brigade attacked the occupying forces’ Bela camp, killing over 40 military personnel so far and holding control of a significant portion of the camp for the last six hours,” its spokesman Jeeyand Baloch was quoted as saying by Economic Times.
“All the fidayeen are still safe and in contact with us,” the statement added.
Militants have fought a decades-long ethnic insurgency to demand the secession of southwestern province which is home to roughly 15 million people, made up of mostly arid desert and mountainous territory holding untapped mineral wealth.
Balochistan is a key location in China’s huge multi-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is part of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative.
But what do we know about the BLA?
Let’s take a closer look:
Origins
According to ModernDiplomacy.eu, the group was founded in 2000.
Its aim is to establish a state of Greater Balochistan.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe group from its inception has said it is fighting the exploitation of the region’s resources by the Pakistani establishment and the mistreatment of natives of the area when it comes to jobs and human rights.
The BLA has been designated a global terror group by several Western nations including the US and UK, as per BBC.
As per The Hindu, Pakistan designated it a ‘terror group’ and banned it in 2006.
The US state department website says, “The BLA is an armed separatist group that targets security forces and civilians, mainly in ethnic Baloch areas of Pakistan.”
The militant group is the oldest of the Baloch freedom movement.
It has its origins in the tradition of armed militants who were supported by the Marri, Bugti, Mengal and other clans or sardars.
The Soviet Union and its radical Marxist ideology hade a huge influence on the BLA with some of their leaders even receiving training from Moscow.
Leadership and base
As per Indian Express, the BLA is currently led by Basheer Zeb.
As per RFERL.org, the BLA is thought to be the biggest armed militant group operating within the province.
The group’s leadership had remained in flux for the past few years.
This after its then leader Aslam Baloch in 2018 was killed in a suicide bombing in Kandahar’s Aino Mina in 2018.
The BLA’s regional leaders are thought to play a key role in charting the direction of the group, as per The Hindu.
A researcher told RFERL.Org that the group is now led by educated, middle-class professionals who think in “modern and unconventional ways.”
The militant group has around 6,000 members across the province and in the neighbouring areas of Afghanistan.
The group has carried out a number of attacks in Pakistan.
According to BBC, in April 2024, the group deboarded nine passengers from a bus in Balochistan and killed four after checking their IDs.
The group this year also hit government offices in the port city of Gwadar, Pakistan’s largest naval air force base and attempted to overrun the strategic town of Mach, as per RFERL.org.
As per The National, the BLA in 2023 ttacked Chinese engineers working in Gwadar.
In June 2020, four militants BLA entered the Pakistan’s tock exchange and killed three security personnel and a police officer.
In 2019, BLA militants claimed an attack on a hotel in Gwadar popular with business travellers.
Several Pakistani staff and guards were killed.
“Anyone affiliated with the state’s crackdown in Balochistan is their target,” an Islamabad-based expert told RFERL.Org on condition of anonymity.
The expert told the website the “recruitment of the separatist militant organisations has skyrocketed” lately – allowing them to “launch more attacks.”
The expert said the recent February elections, tainted by allegations of fraud, only added “fuel to the fire”
The Baluch youth don’t “see any avenue for expressing their dissent,” the analyst added.
The BLA is said to work closely with the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF).
Pakistan in January targeted both groups in airstrikes inside Iran.
“The precision strikes were carried out using killer drones, rockets, loitering munitions and stand-off weapons,” a Pakistani military statement said. It said the targets were bases used by the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) and the associated Baloch Liberation Army.
That came two days after Tehran said it struck the bases of Jaish al Adl (JAA) – an ethnic militant group with Sunni Islamist leanings that primarily Shi’ite Iran sees as a threat – inside Pakistani territory.
According to The National, the BLA in the aftermath of the strikes confirmed some of its members had died.
It released a statement saying, “Now the Baloch Liberation Army will not remain silent. We will avenge it and we announce war on the state of Pakistan.”
As per RFERL.org, the BLA has become a lynchpin for several other Baluch separatist groups.
The expert also expressed doubt that Pakistan could tamp down on the BLA.
“If 20 years of kinetic operations have not solved anything,” the analyst said. “It will not solve anything in the next 20 years.”
Militants have fought a decades-long ethnic insurgency to demand the secession of the resource-rich southwestern province, home to a number of major China-led projects including a strategic port and a gold and copper mine.
What happened today?
The largest of the attacks targeted vehicles from buses to goods trucks on a major highway, killing at least 23 people, officials said, with ten vehicles set ablaze.
A rail line between Pakistan and Iran and a railway bridge linking Quetta, the provincial capital, to the rest of the country were also hit with explosives during the attacks, railways official Muhammad Kashif said, adding that rail traffic with Quetta had been suspended.
Police said they had found six bodies that have yet to be identified, near the attack on the railway bridge.
Militants also targeted police and security stations in the sprawling province, officials said, one of which killed at least 10 people.
Militant group the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) took responsibility in a statement emailed to journalists that claimed many more attacks, including one on a major paramilitary base, though Pakistani authorities have yet to confirm these.
On Sunday night, armed men blocked a highway in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province, marched passengers off the vehicles, and shot them after checking their identity cards, a senior superintendent of police, Ayub Achakzai, told Reuters.
“The armed men also not only killed passengers but also killed the drivers of trucks carrying coal,” said Hameed Zahir, the deputy commissioner of the area, adding that at least 10 trucks had been set on fire after their drivers were killed
Militants have targeted workers from the eastern province of Punjab whom they see as exploiting their resources. In the past, they have also targeted Chinese interests and citizens operating in the province.
China runs the strategic deepwater port of Gawadar in Balochistan’s south, as well as a gold and copper mine in the west.
The BLA said its fighters had targeted military personnel travelling in civilian clothes, who were shot after being identified.
Pakistan’s interior ministry said the dead were innocent citizens.
‘Will bring those responsible to justice’
Six security personnel, three civilians and one tribal elder made up the ten killed in clashes with armed militants who stormed a station of the Balochistan Levies in the central district of Kalat, police official Dostain Khan Dashti said.
Officials said police stations had also been attacked in the two southern coastal towns, but the toll had yet to be confirmed.
The office of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attacks in a statement, vowing that security forces would retaliate and bring those responsible to justice.
Balochistan, which borders both Iran and Afghanistan, is Pakistan’s largest province by size, but the least populated and it remains largely underdeveloped, with high levels of poverty.
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
