Pakistan’s leadership failures alienate Baluchistan’s population Raksha Anirveda 05 Jun 2026
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The author is founder member STRIVE
Pakistan’s leadership failures alienate Baluchistan’s population Raksha Anirveda 05 Jun 2026
On 24th May, the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on a train carrying military personnel in Baluchistan. While the Pak army accepted 24 casualties, including soldiers and their families, the BLA assesses the number to be more than 80, with scores injured. Current toll is estimated to be around 40. BLA relies on its intelligence units to monitor train and road movement involving the Pak army.
With Eid around the corner, a rush for soldiers going home on leave was expected. Since the Mar 2025 hijacking of the Jaffar Express, the Pak army changed its modus operandi of movement of troops in Baluchistan, fearing attacks. Instead of moving its soldiers to Quetta station, where they could be exposed on open platforms, the army shifted to the use of a shuttle train carrying its troops from the garrison to the station.
These coaches would then be connected to the main train. When the incident took place, Pakistan’s top leadership, including PM Shehbaz Sharief and failed marshal Asim Munir were in Beijing on an official visit, celebrating 75 years of diplomatic ties. None bothered to cancel their visit and return to offer condolences to families of those killed.
All they did was criticize the attack on social media, as usual throwing the blame on others. Asim Munir visited the garrison on return. Doing so days after the incident, did little to assuage internal anger and betrayal, which the troops felt. This was failure of the nation’s top leadership. Compare this to PM Modi cutting short his visit to Saudi Arabia to be with families of those killed by terrorists in Pahalgam.
Baluchistan is an example of how a nation’s leadership, military and political, can together turn an entire region against the state. Baluchistan is the country’s largest, most resource rich and least populated province, which is today being controlled by the gun alongside denial of facilities. Its resources are being looted, filling coffers of the leadership, while its people live in abject poverty. Had the government acted differently, the region and the state would both have gained.
The Pak army failed to adhere to the tenant of winning hearts and minds when dealing with a hostile population, a basic necessity for pushing an uprising to closure. In Jan 2005, President Musharraf publicly defended an army captain accused of raping Dr. Shazia Khalid, in Baluchistan, sparking the latest round of the uprising. Currently, Pakistan resorts to human rights violations, extra judicial killings and imposing collective penalties on the Baloch. Every inhuman act adds supporters to the BLA cause. The number of suicide bombers within the BLA increase only because the Pak army has pushed locals to desperation.
Post the Quetta train attack inputs emerged that the army leadership ordered elimination of the complete family of the suicide bomber as a punishment. This will only alienate the locals, drawing many more into the folds of the BLA.
The Pak army has never looked inwards at its own faultlines, preferring to throw the blame on the growth of the BLA on India and Afghanistan. It terms the BLA as ‘Fitna al-Hindustan’ meaning the ‘curse of Hindustan.’ It hides its inabilities by claiming that the BLA is funded, armed and directed by India’s RAW as also has bases within Afghanistan. Hence, it takes the easiest way out and launches air strikes on Afghanistan. This may satisfy some of its people but unless it studies its own approach to the scenario, it can never bring the situation under control.
The Pak army leadership, headed by Asim Munir is more interested in running the nation, controlling politics and enhancing their financial status, rather than caring for their soldiers or resolving internal differences within the country. Their current emphasis is enhancing ties with the US and playing peacemaker, rather than getting involved in military matters, especially in troubled regions. The army needs enmity with India and some level of internal insurgency to ensure its budget and power within. This is one of the reasons why Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will never see peace.
The Pak military is aware that, apart from groups seeking independence, operating under the banner of BRAs (Baloch Raji Aajoi Sangar), there is also a peaceful movement demanding access to basic amenities including water, medicines, stopping Chinese trawlers impinging on their livelihood etc. Ideally, by engaging positively with this movement, it could have isolated those seeking independence. Instead, the rampaging army cracks down on the activists, largely women, lodges them in prison in inhuman condition alienating the region.
The Pak army believes that by offering minerals from Baluchistan to the US and China, it could curry their support. However, unless the region is peaceful and people permit its extraction, these promises remain meaningless. The CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor) and its flagship product, the port of Gwadar, remains unfulfilled because the Baloch are up in arms against it.
Their regular targeting of Chinese engineers on the project, which Pakistan fails to prevent, enhances anger in Beijing. Every time a Chinese national is killed, the Pak government is forced to pay. These could have been averted in case the Pak army operated with reason and understanding, rather than behaving as an occupier and treating the Baloch as a suppressed community.
As Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan deteriorate, the nexus between the TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) and the BRAs increase, adding to insecurity within the state. A major benefit for Pakistan is that Baluchistan has not gained global prominence that it should have, largely due to its limited population and isolation of the region. Simultaneously, the fear it has created within the country, restricts movement of people from other parts of Pakistan to the region.
The common Pak soldier is aware that the country paid heavily in Operation Sindoor. He was witness to destruction of their airfields, strategic assets, posts along the LoC and terrorist camps. He would have smirked when Asim Munir was appointed failed marshal, a name aptly chosen on his performance during the operations. It would have made him realize that Pakistan honours failures. Many top military commanders in Baluchistan would rise to higher ranks despite failing their troops, solely because of the approach of the state, which honours lies and awards failures, while discarding success.
About the Author
Maj Gen Harsha Kakkar
Retired Major General Indian Army