DND Report

There is no doubt left that Quetta Railway Station’s suicide bombing targeted personnel of security forces who were leaving Quetta for their homes. The collateral damage was civilians who were also present at the Railway platform.

This incident was a continuation of a ‘tragedy’ that is surely foreign-sponsored but executed by sons and daughters of the motherland who had been victims of indoctrination planned and managed by those who do not want to see Pakistan’s prosperity. There is a long list of reasons why certain powers do not want peace in Balochistan but all such motives are linked with the geopolitical positioning of Balochistan which is on the crossroads of South Asia-Central Asia and Asia Minor.

On 28 August 2024, different parts of Balochistan were targeted by terrorists and at least 50 people including 10 soldiers and four law enforcement agencies’ personnel embraced martyrdom. In Musakhel, 23 people from Punjab were pulled out of a bus and after checking their identity documents were shot dead. The victims included truck drivers carrying coal and fruit to Punjab via the Loralai – D G Khan Highway. As many as 35 trucks and other vehicles were set on fire. While in coordinated attacks by militants aimed at security forces and civilians hailing from Punjab, two suicide bombers, one of them a woman, targeted the Frontier Corps camp in Bela. Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attacks.

One can say that foreign powers do not want a stable region to halt Chinese inroad in the region that otherwise successfully links China mainland to Central Asia but its linkage to Indo Pacific at Gwadar through Afghanistan via Balochistan is strategically important and that is why China is also looking long route of China-Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan—Uzbekistan—Turkmenistan and Iran anchoring at Chahbahar. However, one should not forget that this route has long been in use but is not viable for huge cargo traffic. There is another theory that a volatile Balochistan suits all those who do not want the success of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is the shortest possible route for China to reach the Indo-Pacific. There is no doubt that these above-mentioned theories have logic and reasons to believe, however, the overall prosperity of mineral-rich Balochistan is not in favor of those also who want to slice Iranian Balochistan and Pakistani Balochistan and create an independent land that would serve the cause of those who had been helping separatists of Iranian Balochistan in past and created separatists organizations like Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA)  in Pakistani Balochistan and  Jundallah, a Sunni Islamist militant group in the Sistan and Balochistan Province in southeastern Iran. Tehran successfully crushed Jundallah in 2010 after Abdolmalek Rigi was hanged to death in Evin Prison in Tehran.

Since the early 1970s, the separatist movement has been part of the politics of Balochistan and separatist leaders had European cities as their ‘retreat resorts’ so separatism is neither a new phenomenon in Balochistan nor something extraordinary, and research of the last 50 years surely name actors who do not want peace and prosperity in Balochistan. However, this phenomenon was mitigated through political dialogues, using state power and pleasing powerful personalities of the province but the soil became ripe again after the assassination of Sardar Akbar Khan Bugti who was blown to death by security forces in August 2006. This event was a jackpot for India as well as for some Western countries that took no time to fund and plan insurgency in Balochistan. A reckless, ill-planned, and avoidable action surely helped enemies to poison Baloch youth against Pakistan. Since then security forces and Punjabis are at the target of locally indoctrinated youth through foreign funds to destabilize Pakistan.

According to unofficial data, over 3000 personnel of security forces and citizens from Punjab had been targeted by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) in the last 10 years which had already claimed responsibility for the Quetta Railway Station suicide bombing. Moreover, the latest target of separatists are Chinese citizens and BLA reportedly coordinates with other terrorist outfits such as TTP to target Chinese as well as security forces not only in Balochistan but also in KPK province. In the last month, 20-plus laborers were killed in a brutal rocket attack in the Duki mines and all of them were laborers from KP and Punjab. These incidents are not isolated; they are symptomatic of a deeply embedded plan to disrupt Balochistan. Targeting civilians and law enforcement personnel alike, these acts of terror do nothing but deepen the suffering of the Baloch people, adding bloodshed to an already strained society and they represent nothing just insanity. Sane elements within Baloch society also voice that BLA’s actions are not a form of resistance but a tragic diversion from the path to peace, damaging any chance for constructive dialogue and only serving to strengthen the very forces that perpetuate this cycle of violence and mistrust.

As always, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other politicians denounced terrorism after Quetta Railway Station suicide blast but words alone are insufficient now as Balochistan is burning. PM Shehbaz Sharif should learn from his brother former PM Nawaz Sharif who brought peace to Balochistan when Balochistan was burning Nawaz Sharif through his effective team having personalities like Lt Gen (retd) Nasser Khan Janjua turned the table in favor of the state. Janjua was appointed as Corps Commander of the XII Corps when burning Pakistani flags was a norm but he closely worked with the then CM Balochistan Abdul Malik Baloch in stabilizing Balochistan and supervised firsthand counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations against a variety of militant groups but reached out of youth at the same time and initiated dialogue not only with political groups rather with civil society as well as journalists of Balochistan. From sectarian militias to alleged Indian-sponsored separatist groups, Janjua had been a witness to some of the most vicious interference in Pakistan and mitigated extremists. During his tenure, the restoration of peace in Balochistan was a joint civil-military leadership effort and his target group was the youth of Balochistan and message was simple ‘You are not a problem rather you are victims and laying down arms and embark on the path of peace for a peaceful Balochistan is your responsibility towards your society’. As the National Security Advisor (NSA) of Nawaz Sharif, he kept focusing mitigation of terrorism in Balochistan and Afghanistan.

There is no doubt that peace in Balochistan is a top priority of PM Shehbaz Sharif but it is now time to revisit the policy because the rhetoric ‘we shall not allow terrorists to play havoc with the peace of Balochistan’ is not serving the cause and Balochistan continues to bleed. There is no harm in changing strategy and getting help from people such as Nasser Khan Janjua who served well and brought results. There is no harm in engaging such people as the Governor of Balochistan or the National Security Advisor with a single agenda of bringing peace to Balochistan because the constant success of terrorists by killing innocent people favors terrorists for spreading fear among youth with a message that ‘your state can not protect you’.