A wave of attacks under the Baloch Liberation Army’s (BLA) ‘Operation Herof Phase 2.0’ rocked Balochistan on January 31, hitting 48 sites in 14 cities including Quetta, Gwadar, and mineral-laden Chagai. This intensification spotlights Pakistan’s festering Balochistan quagmire.
Casualty tallies clash: authorities report militant casualties; insurgents herald triumphs over troops. Daniel Kaplan’s insightful One World Outlook commentary frames it as culmination of systemic abuses—oppression, marginalization, and violence by Pakistani regimes that have eroded any faith in state institutions.
The province’s treasures—gold, copper, gas—mock its underdevelopment. Extraction projects yield fortunes for outsiders, leaving locals sidelined without shares or say. Beijing-backed initiatives, ringed by soldiers, amplify grievances of exploitation and neglect.
Central to the rage: enforced vanishings, with thousands unaccounted since early 2000s. Official probes confirm patterns but spare culprits. Global watchdogs expose abductions targeting voices of change, ending in tortured remains via ‘kill and dump.’ 2025 UN rebukes highlighted the crisis, ignored by Pakistan.
Outrages compound: 2025 slaying of Hayat Baloch by forces; 2023 Gwadar crackdown on Haq Do Tehreek with digital blackouts; tainted 2024 votes. Mahrang Baloch’s March 2025 jailing, protest-born, brings charges and mistreatment reports, radicalizing even women into combat roles.
As Kaplan observes, generations hardened by impunity now fight back. Pakistan’s choice: reform through equity and rights, or perpetual insurgency.