The Balochistan Liberation United Front (BLUF) is a Baloch nationalist militant organization in Pakistan. It first became known for claiming the kidnapping of American UNHCR worker John Solecki from Quetta on February 2, 2009. The BLUF demanded the release of thousands of Baloch nationalist prisoners it claimed were being held by the Pakistani government in Baloch insurgency. The group eventually released Solecki on April 4, 2009, on humanitarian grounds without any of its demands being met. [1] BLUF also claimed the responsibility for a targeted attack on October 25, 2009 that killed Shafiq Ahmed Khan, the education minister of the Balochistan province. [2]
The Insurgency in Balochistan is an insurgency or revolt by Baloch nationalists and Islamist militants against the governments of Pakistan and Iran in the Balochistan region, which covers the Pakistani province of Balochistan, Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan, and Balochistan of southern Afghanistan. Rich in natural resources like natural gas, oil, coal, copper, sulphur, fluoride and gold, this is the largest, least populated and least developed province in Pakistan. Armed groups demand greater control of the province's natural resources and political autonomy. Baloch separatists have attacked civilians from other ethnicities throughout the province. In the 2010s, attacks against the Shia community by sectarian groups—though not always directly related to the political struggle—have risen, contributing to tensions in Balochistan. In Pakistan, the ethnic separatist insurgency is low-scale but ongoing mainly in southern Balochistan, as well as sectarian and religiously motivated militancy concentrated mainly in northern and central Balochistan.
The Balochistan Liberation Army, is a Baloch ethnonationalist militant organization based in Afghanistan. BLA's first recorded activity was during the summer of 2000, after it claimed credit for a series of bombing attacks on Pakistani authorities. BLA is listed as a terrorist organization by Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Brahamdagh Khan Bugti or Brahumdagh Khan Bugti is the founder and leader of the Political Organisation Baloch Republican Party, a Baloch nationalist group which broke away from his uncle Talal Akbar Bugti's Jamhoori Watan Party in 2008. He is the grandson and tribal successor of Nawab Akbar Bugti, former chief minister and governor of the Balochistan province. He campaigns for the rights of Baloch people around Europe. As of 2018, he was living in self-imposed exile in Switzerland.
The Baloch Students Organization is a student organisation that campaigns for the students of Pakistan's Balochistan Province. It was founded as a student movement on 26 November 1967 in Karachi and remains the largest ethnic Baloch student body in the country. It got divided due to ideological differences. BSO Pajjar and BSO Mohiuddin are affiliated with the parliamentary framework of Pakistan. Dr Allah Nazar, founder of pro independence wing, in 2002 while he was studying in college, created a breakaway faction — BSO–Azad — that advocated struggle for an independent Balochistan based on pre-colonial Baloch country. The Pakistani government banned the BSO Azad on 15 March 2013, as a terrorist organisation.
National Party is a social-democratic, centre-left political party in Pakistan. It is one of the largest parties active in the province of Balochistan, Pakistan, along with the Balochistan National Party. It traces its legacy from the Kalat State National Party of Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo, Mir Gul Khan Nasir and Mir Abdul Aziz Kurd, and is currently headed by Abdul Malik Baloch.
Baloch nationalism is an ideology that asserts that the Baloch people, an ethnic group native to Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, form a distinct nation. The origins of modern Baloch nationalism coupled with the insurgency in Balochistan involving various militant organizations, go back to the period of the partition of British India and subsequent independence of Pakistan, when Kalat, the largest Baloch princely state, acceded to the Dominion of Pakistan.
The Baloch National Movement is a Baloch nationalist political organization which was led by Ghulam Mohammed Baloch, who served as the organizations's president until his murder in April 2009.
John Solecki was the head of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in the Pakistani city of Quetta. Solecki had been working in Balochistan to help the Afghan refugees, the communities hosting them and the local people affected by floods and earthquakes.
There are or have been a number of separatist movements in Pakistan based on ethnic and regional nationalism, that have agitated for independence, and sometimes fighting the Pakistan state at various times during its history. As in many other countries, tension arises from the perception of minority/less powerful ethnic groups that other ethnicities dominate the politics and economics of the country to the detriment of those with less power and money. The government of Pakistan has attempted to subdue these separatist movements.
The Baloch Republican Army (BRA) (Urdu: بلوچ ریپبلکن آرمی) was an armed militant group in Balochistan, Pakistan. Samad, Yunas (2015), "Understanding the insurgency in Balochistan", in Roger D. Long; Gurharpal Singh; Yunas Samad; Ian Talbot (eds.), State and Nation-Building in Pakistan: Beyond Islam and Security, Routledge, pp. 118–145, ISBN 978-1-317-44820-4</ref> In September 2010, the Government of Pakistan banned the Baloch Republican Army. was the head of BRA, until its merger with United Baloch Army (UBA). In 2017 Bugti's asylum request was rejected by Swiss authorities. The Swiss authorities said that Bugti's asylum request was rejected because he was involved in terror-related activities.
The 2011 Mastung bus shooting was an armed attack on 20 September 2011 on a bus traveling in Mastung District near the city of Quetta in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. The attack left at least 26 people dead. The victims were Shi'a Muslim pilgrims of the Hazara community, suggesting the attack to have been a targeted killing of sectarian nature. The attack occurred in Luck Pass area near Mastung. The bus was leaving Quetta for Taftan, Balochistan. In addition, 2 others were killed in a follow-up attack on a car on its way to rescue the survivors of the bus attack, which raised the death toll to 28 on that day.
This is a list of known foreign hostages in Pakistan.
Human rights abuses in the province ofBalochistan refers to the human rights violations that are occurring in the ongoing insurgency in Balochistan. The situation has drawn concern from the international community, The human rights situation in Balochistan is credited to the long-running conflict between Baloch nationalists and Pakistani security forces.
The persecution of Hazaras in Quetta, is a series of ethnic or religious motivated attacks on Hazaras in Quetta, Pakistan. Terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi or Lashkar-e-Taiba have often accepted responsibility for conducting attacks on Hazaras in Pakistan.
Malik Siraj Akbar is an ethnic Baloch journalist based in the United States. He is the editor-in-chief of the Baluch Hal, the first online English language newspaper of Pakistan's Balochistan Province, Enkaar, a liberal Urdu language news magazine, and a contributing writer for The Huffington Post. He lives in exile in the United States.
Sardar Sanaullah Khan Zehri is a Pakistani politician who had been the Chief Minister of Balochistan from 24 December 2015 to 9 December 2017. He belongs to Channal Zarakzai family and is also the Sardar of the Zehri tribe and chief of Jhalawan. Zehri was the central president of the Pakistan Muslim League's Balochistan branch and a confidant of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif He left the PML-N on 7 November 2020.
United Baloch Army was a militant group, fighting for the separation of Balochistan. The group has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the Pakistani government. The government of Pakistan banned the group on 15 March 2013. The group has also been classified as a terrorist organisation by Switzerland's government.
The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) is a non-governmental organization which represents family members of people who have been subject to enforced disappearance in Pakistan's province of Balochistan.
Baloch Nationalist Army (BNA) (Urdu: بلوچ نیشنلسٹ آرمی) was a militant group, fighting for the separation of Balochistan province. The group was formed on January 11, 2022, out of a merger of the Baloch Republican Army (BRA), and the United Baloch Army (UBA). BRA and UBA also announced their dissolution following the establishment of Baloch Nationalist Army.
On 26 April 2022, a suicide bombing hit a van near the University of Karachi's Confucius Institute, killing three Chinese academics and their Pakistani driver. The Balochistan Liberation Army, claimed responsibility, saying that the perpetrator was the organization's first female suicide bomber.