KARACHI, FEB 1 (Reuters) – Pakistan’s banned separatist group the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for coordinated gun and bomb attacks that killed dozens of civilians and security personnel and triggered one of the deadliest security operations in Balochistan in years.
The BLA is the strongest of a number of insurgent groups long operating in the province bordering Afghanistan and Iran, a mineral-rich region that is home to Beijing’s investment in Gwadar deep water port and other projects.
Here are facts about the group, which has also targeted Chinese interests.
WHAT ARE THE BLA’S GOALS?
The BLA seeks independence for Balochistan, a province located in Pakistan’s southwest and bordering Afghanistan to the north and Iran to the west.
It is the biggest of several ethnic insurgent groups that have battled the federal government for decades, saying it unfairly exploits Balochistan’s rich gas and mineral resources.
The group says Balochistan’s natural wealth belongs to its people and rejects federal control over resource extraction and security.
Balochistan’s mountainous border region serves as a safe haven and training ground for the Baloch insurgents and Islamist militants.
HOW HAS IT BECOME MORE LETHAL?
Once considered a low-intensity insurgency, attacks by the Baloch Liberation Army have grown more frequent, coordinated and lethal in recent years.
The group stunned Pakistan’s security establishment in 2022 when it stormed army and navy bases.
In August 2024, militants carried out coordinated attacks across Balochistan, including highway assaults in which passengers were pulled from buses and shot after identity checks.
In March 2025, militants opened fire on the Jaffar Express passenger train after sabotaging railway tracks, briefly taking hostages and triggering a major security operation, officials and local media said.
The BLA has deployed women suicide bombers, including in an attack on Chinese nationals in Karachi, and is designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the United States. Pakistan accuses India and Afghanistan of backing the militants, an allegation both countries deny.
WHAT ARE THE BLA’S TARGETS?
The BLA often targets infrastructure and security forces in Balochistan, but has also struck in other areas – most notably the southern port city of Karachi.
The insurgents target Pakistan’s army and Chinese interests, in particular the strategic port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, accusing Beijing of helping Islamabad to exploit the province.
Militants have killed Chinese citizens working in the region and attacked Beijing’s consulate and language center in Karachi.
It has also attacked civilians, migrant labourers from other provinces, a shift officials say marks an escalation in tactics.
The BLA, separately, was also at the centre of tit-for-tat strikes last year between Iran and Pakistan over what they called militant bases on each other’s territory, which brought the neighbours close to war.
BALOCHISTAN’S SIGNIFICANCE
Balochistan is an important part of China’s $65 billion investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a wing of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative.
It is home to key mining projects, including Reko Diq, run by mining giant Barrick Gold (ABX.TO), and believed to be one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines.
China also operates a gold and copper mine in the province.
The decades-old insurgency has continued to keep the province of some 15 million people unstable and created security concerns around Pakistan’s plans to access untapped resources.
It is Pakistan’s largest province by area, but smallest by population. Balochistan also has a long Arabian Sea coastline, not far from the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz oil shipping lane.
Hundreds of Baloch activists, many of them women, have protested in Islamabad and Balochistan over alleged abuses by security forces – accusations the government denies.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad in Islamabad, Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Ariba Shahid in Karachi; Editing by Aidan Lewis, Ed Osmond and Saad Sayeed)
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