Urban youths swell ranks of separatist suicide squads in Pakistan’s Balochistan province
More than 70 people were killed in multiple attacks across the Pakistani province of Balochistan on August 25th and 26th in an operation claimed by the separatist militant group Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). While the group claimed to have used suicide bombers and armed fighters against military and economic targets, Pakistani officials said the victims included migrant workers from the neighbouring Punjab region, who were dragged from their trucks and shot when they were identified as Punjabi.
The attacks targeted military convoys and camps, police stations and highways across the province, including roads built as part of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a Chinese-funded project to link the region’s Arabian Sea ports to the Chinese border 1800 km to the northeast. The group claimed to have also attacked a police station in Gwadar, a southwestern port city that is a key hub of the CPEC.
At the other end of the province, in the Musakhel district near the border with Punjab, Pakistani police said that BLA militants stopped vehicles, demanded IDs and executed 23 people after identifying them as Punjabi migrant workers.
The Pakistan Armed Forces said 14 soldiers and police were killed in the attacks, adding that their forces killed 21 of the militants.
What is the BLA?
Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistani political scientist and a Research Associate at SOAS, said:
