The Insurgency in Balochistan is a low-intensity insurgency uprising or revolt by Baloch nationalists against the governments of Pakistan and Iran in the Balochistan region, which covers the Balochistan Province in southwestern Pakistan, Sistan and Baluchestan Province in southeastern Iran, and the Balochistan region of southern Afghanistan. Rich in natural resources like natural gas, oil, coal, copper, sulphur, fluoride and gold, this is the largest 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 Shi'a community by sectarian groups—though not always directly related to the political struggle—have risen, contributing to tensions in Balochistan.
The 1970s operation in Balochistan was a five-year military conflict in Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan, between the Pakistan Army and Baloch separatists and tribesmen that lasted from 1973 to 1978.
The Balochistan Liberation Army, also known as the Baloch Liberation Army, is a militant organization based in Afghanistan. The BLA became publicly known during the summer of 2000, after it claimed credit for a series of bombing attacks on Pakistani authorities. The BLA is listed as a terrorist organization by Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
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 Mengal 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.
The Balochistan Liberation Front is a militant group operating in the Balochistan region of southwestern Asia. The group was founded by Jumma Khan in 1964 in Damascus, and played an important role in the 1968–1973 insurgency in Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran and 1973–1977 insurgency in Balochistan province of Pakistan. However, the group's insurgency was defeated in both Pakistan and Iran and the status of the group became unknown until 2004. The group re-emerged in 2004 after Allah Nazar Baloch took command of the group in 2003. Since then the group has took responsibility for attacks on civilians, journalists, government officials and military personnel.
Baluch People's Liberation Front, also known as Baluch Awami Azadi Mahaiz or BPLF is a militant group formed by Mir Hazar Khan Marri, a prominent Baluchi leader in 1976, led by Sher Mohammad Marri.
The Baloch Students Organization-Awami or BSO-Awami was founded in 1972, when it split from the Baloch Students Organization (BSO). It supported Baluch People's Liberation Front, a militant organization in Balochistan against Pakistani control. The organisation was Marxist-Leninist in its ideology. It was against the sardari system in Balochistan.
Bugti Militia was a militant group formed in Dera Bugti, Balochistan by Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in 1952.The group believed in Baloch nationalism and fought for autonomy and more economic and political rights. The group took an active part in the 1970s Insurgency in Balochistan. However, it lost most of its fighters in Pakistani military operations and some of the surviving fighters went underground. In 2004, Nawabzada Brahamdagh Khan Bugti regrouped the Bugti Militia fighters and formed the Baloch Republican Army.
Dr. Jumma Khan Marri is a senior Baloch political activist from Balochistan. He was formerly a member of Baloch separatist groups.
The 1973 raid on the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan was an armed infiltration carried out by Pakistan in February 1973 at the embassy of Ba'athist Iraq in Islamabad. The raid, carried out by the Pakistan Rangers and the Islamabad Police, was launched after the interception of information by Pakistani intelligence that uncovered large-scale covert Iraqi involvement in the supplication of weapons and funds to militants waging an insurgency against Iran and Pakistan in the Balochistan region situated between the two countries. Following the embassy raid, an abundance of funds and Soviet armaments from Iraq that were meant for Baloch insurgents were seized by Pakistani forces, and the Iraqi ambassador to Pakistan as well as the embassy's staff were immediately expelled from Pakistan and declared personae non gratae. Pakistan's findings in the embassy raid heightened tensions between Iran and Iraq, which, in 1974, escalated into armed clashes over the Shatt al-Arab, a river that was formerly subject to a territorial dispute between the two nations that later served as one of the key factors that propelled them into a full-scale and protracted war in 1980 following the Iranian Revolution. The event led to a severe deterioration in Iraq–Pakistan relations and contributed to Pakistan's heavy backing of Iran during the latter's eight-year-long war with Iraq.
Hameed Baloch was a Baloch student and member of the Baloch Students Organization (BSO). He was arrested on 9 December 1979, while he was a student at Government Degree College Turbat, on charges of firing at the military officer from the Gulf state of Oman. The Omani military officer was recruiting Pakistani Baloch soldiers from Balochistan province to suppress the Dhofar Rebellion. Oman at the time was facing a Marxist–Leninist insurgency in its Dhofar province. Ever since Oman took control of the Balochistan enclave of Gwadar in the 18th Century, it had hired foot soldiers from Balochistan to serve in the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces.
Allah Nazar Baloch is the current leader of Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), a militant group operating in Pakistan. Under his leadership, the group has claimed responsibility for hundreds of attacks on Pakistani security forces, civilians, journalists, government officials.
Baloch nationalism asserts that the Baloch people, an ethnic group native to Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan are a distinct nation. The movement propagates the view that Muslims are not a nation and that ethnic loyalty must surpass religious loyalty. This is the opposite of the concept behind the creation of Pakistan, a concept challenged by both the 1971 civil war in East Pakistan and the discrimination many Muhajir people have historically faced within Pakistan.
There are separatist movements in Pakistan which are based on ethnic and regional nationalism, including independence movements in Balawaristan, Sindh and Balochistan. The government of Pakistan has attempted to subdue these separatist movements.
The Baloch Republican Army (BRA) was an armed militant group in Balochistan, Pakistan. It was believed to be militant wing of Baloch Republican Party. In September 2010, the Government of Pakistan banned the Baloch Republican Army.
Human rights violations inBalochistan refers to the mass human rights abuses committed by combatants involved in the ongoing insurgency in Balochistan. The situation in Pakistani Balochistan in particular has drawn significant concern in the international community, being described by Human Rights Watch (HRW) as having reached epidemic proportions. The deteriorating human rights situation in Balochistan is credited to the long-running conflict between Baloch nationalists and Pakistani security forces.
The Hazara community in Quetta, in Pakistan, has been the target of persecution and violence. Terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have often accepted responsibility for conducting attacks on Hazaras in Pakistan.
The Sistan and Baluchestan insurgency, part of the Balochistan conflict, began approximately in 2004 and is an ongoing low-intensity asymmetric conflict in Sistan and Baluchestan Province between Iran and several Baloch Sunni militant organizations which are designated as terrorist organizations by Iran.
Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad is a codename of a combined military operation by the Pakistani military in support of local law enforcement agencies to disarm and eliminate the terrorist sleeper cells across all states of Pakistan, started on 22 February 2017. The operation is aimed to eliminate the threat of terrorism, and consolidating the gains of Operation Zarb-e-Azb which was launched in 2014 as a joint military offensive. It is further aimed at ensuring the security of Pakistan's borders. The operation is ongoing active participation from Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Police and other Warfare and Civil Armed Forces managed under the Government of Pakistan. More than 375,000 operations have been carried out against terrorists so far. This Operation has been mostly acknowledged after Operation Zarb e Azb.
On 16 February 2019, armed men attacked and killed two Frontier Corps in Loralai. Later on 17 February 2019, another attack took place on Pakistani security personnel in which four members of the Frontier Corps were killed in the Gardab area of Panjgur District..The attack was carried out by the Baloch Raji Ajoi Sangar (BRAS), an alliance of three Balochi terrorist organizations, the Baloch Liberation Army, Balochistan Liberation Front and Baloch Republican Guard.
