Asif Haroon Raja
On May 24, an explosive laden vehicle suicide bombing was carried out on a railway track in Quetta district of Balochistan by the terrorists of “Fitna al-Hindustan.” In this cowardly attack, more than 16, including women and children, were martyred, while 30 were injured. Homes, shops, buildings, and vehicles were destroyed. They were proceeding to celebrate Eid Al Zuha with their dear ones.
Among the martyrs were five brave soldiers of the Frontier Corps who embraced martyrdom in the line of duty:-
Sepoy Dilbar Mehr Shaheed — resident of Sanghar District
Sepoy Shayan Altaf Shaheed — resident of Layyah District
Sepoy Haris Zafar Shaheed — resident of Rawalpindi District
Sepoy Nadeem Akhtar Shaheed — resident of Shikarpur District
Sepoy Bilal Shaheed — resident of Muzaffargarh District
The BLA accepted responsibility for the blast near Chaman Phatak in Quetta. Its suicide bombers wing Majeed Brigade claimed responsibility for targeting the shuttle train in Quetta cantonment that was carrying men, women and children to the Jaffar passenger train in Quetta railway station.
The terrorists claim they are fighting a war for freedom, but has this “war for freedom” now reached the point of killing women and children?
These people of “Fitna al-Hindustan” are neither human, nor true Baloch, nor Muslims. They have nothing to do with Islam. They are “dogs of hell.”
Who were the people killed? Unarmed passengers, elderly people, children, and women.
What was their crime? They were neither looting Balochistan’s resources nor fighting against the BLA.
Then why were they murdered?
Who were the masterminds behind this attack — the same individuals whose photographs are displayed by Baloch Yekjehti Committee (BYC), while labeling them as “forcibly disappeared persons,” creating a narrative of state oppression?
The BLA then exploits this self-created narrative of oppression and, while claiming to represent Balochistan, sheds the blood of innocent people.
But is the BLA’s claim really valid?
Around the world, terrorist organizations often cloak themselves in the guise of representing a nation or ethnic group in order to justify their survival, funding, illegal activities, and mass killings, portraying themselves as “political” or “freedom” movements.
The BLA, too, presents itself as such a representative merely because some of its members were born into Baloch families.
However, belonging to a particular ethnicity does not automatically make an armed or terrorist group the representative of that nation.
If ethnicity alone were proof of representation, then every criminal, bandit, or murderer within a community would also be considered its representative.
The terrorists of the BLA may be ethnically Baloch, but their agenda and methods were not chosen by the majority of the Baloch people. Genuine representation requires the conscious support and consent of the public.
Did the Baloch people ever elect the BLA through a referendum, vote, or tribal council, granting four or five thousand militants the authority to represent 15 to 20 million people of Balochistan?
Did the Baloch people authorize them to kill laborers, barbers, traders, or passengers traveling on trains? Certainly not.
The Baloch people who participate in elections under Pakistan’s Constitution, cast votes, and become part of Parliament are labeled “traitors” by the BLA and are often targeted and killed.
In this way, the BLA rejects the political will of the majority of Baloch people through violence.
The BLA targets patriotic Baloch leaders, tribal elders, and politicians who seek Baloch rights within the constitutional framework, while simultaneously portraying itself as a champion of Baloch rights.
Ironically, the largest victims of its violent activities are innocent Baloch civilians themselves.
Previously, BLA itself claimed responsibility for attacks in areas such as Quetta, Mastung, and Turbat in public places, buses, and railway stations, destroying countless Baloch families.
A large number of personnel in the Balochistan Police, Levies, and Frontier Corps are local Baloch youth.
The BLA has targeted hundreds of local Baloch officers while on duty or traveling home on leave.
Any movement genuinely fighting for the rights of its people does not formulate its strategy based on funding and directives from foreign countries and intelligence agencies.
The BLA’s attacks on Pakistan’s strategic and economic projects, such as Gwadar Port and CPEC, indicate that its objective is not the prosperity of the Baloch people, but rather the protection of foreign interests, sabotage of Balochistan’s economy and scuttling of CPEC.
The greatest victims of BLA attacks are poor and defenseless people — laborers, barbers, and small traders from Punjab, Sindh, and other regions who help sustain the local economy of Balochistan.
The BLA deliberately destroys development infrastructure in Balochistan. Blowing up gas pipelines, destroying electricity towers, and attacking road construction companies are all part of its strategy.
Without infrastructure, industries cannot be established, and local Baloch youth remain unemployed.
The BLA seeks to keep Baloch people deprived so that poverty and hopelessness continue driving people into its militant network.
This is not a struggle for rights but a conspiracy to perpetuate deprivation.
If terrorism ends in Balochistan, investors will come, modern infrastructure, hospitals, and schools will be built, Gwadar could become a new Dubai, and local Baloch communities could prosper.
But if those who come to develop Balochistan are killed, who will build schools, hospitals, and colleges?
Who will lift Balochistan out of backwardness?
Yesterday, the name of suicide bomber Bilal Shahwani was reportedly registered by BYC on a “missing persons” list. This was the same terrorist who targeted innocent and defenseless civilians in yesterday’s Quetta blast.
It was also reported that only months earlier, the bomber’s father had publicly disowned him. Even their own families express hatred and disassociation from such individuals.
Where, then, is the BLA’s propaganda that this is a “war of the Baloch nation”?
Even the families of their own militants are distancing themselves from them. Yet some nationalist voices still argue that such terrorists deserve sympathy and negotiations.
Where are figures like Akhtar Mengal and Hamid Mir, who argue that deprivation drives people toward militancy? They are among the leading promoters of the narrative of ‘missing persons’.
If one brother does not possess a mansion like another, or if someone spends his life in hatred, criticism, and addiction rather than hard work, does that give him the right to kill others?
Can the bloodshed of innocent children, women, and civilians ever be justified as a response to deprivation?
This is neither a struggle for rights nor for freedom.
It is terrorism — pure and simple.
These were terrorists, they are terrorists, and they will remain terrorists.
The reality of Khawarij terrorism is one of deception, violence, and a systematic agenda of destabilization.
First, the Pakistani nation is misled in the name of missing persons, and later the same so-called missing person is used as a suicide bomber against innocent civilians.
Recently, videos have circulated on social media showing Baloch women receiving weapons training in a mountainous area of Baluchistan closer to the Afghan border.
They are wearing Israeli type uniforms and handling sophisticated weapons. These armed women — including Mahrang Baloch, Sami Baloch, and Bebo Baloch — are presented as the hidden face behind the rhetoric of rights and deprivation in Balochistan.
When such anti-state elements are killed in confrontation and their bodies are shown, human rights activists and “women’s rights card” advocates emerge in protest.
Foreign Hands
It is an open secret that the UAE has been funding BLA since the early 2000s. BLA’s starlink & telecommunications equipment is smuggled from the UAE. Parts of the media network of Afghanistan, BLA and TTP operate from the UAE.
Chahbahar port has been used for transporting arms and equipment to the anti-Pakistan terrorist groups in Afghanistan, and was once the base of operation of RAW agent Kalbushan Yadhav.
India, Israel, and Afghanistan may have had a role behind the Quetta incident. The reason could be the pangs of humiliation suffered by both India and Israel at the hands of Pakistan in the four-day war.
The Afghanistan regime is also outraged over its defeat in the two aggressive attempts across Pakistan’s western border in Oct and February, and Pakistan military’s Operation Ghazab Lil-Haq. The pain and humiliation is unbearable for the trio.
The other reason could be Pakistan achieving a major diplomatic success in resolving the Gulf crisis through mediation between the United States and Iran.
Pakistan’s huge diplomatic success left India and Israel isolated and frustrated in the region. Pakistan’s growing international recognition and praise are intolerable for the enemy.
These reasons could have impelled India and Israel to activate Fitnah Al Hindustan-BLA proxies to carry out the bloody attack in Quetta. Timing was important. Field Marshal Asim Munir was on an important mission to Tehran and the PM Shahbaz Sharif was in Beijing. More so, Eid celebrations had to be marred.
In the regional politics and security, coincidences do not occur, and that the timing suggests Indian and Israeli intelligence agencies may have used local proxies to undermine Pakistan’s diplomatic progress. The other reason could be to distract Pakistan from its larger strategic goals, which it has almost achieved.
This widely held suspicion of involvement of the indo-US-Afghan nexus involved in cross border terrorism in Baluchistan can also be linked to the tweet of the US ex-CIA Director and Secretary of State Pompeo. It should ring alarm bells across Pakistan.
He openly declares, “After Tehran, Zahedan — next stop Balochistan.” He shockingly extends New Year greetings to Mossad agents operating inside Iran.
These are not casual words or idle tweets. When a former intelligence chief speaks in this tone, it reflects a dangerous strategic mindset—one that normalizes covert operations, proxy conflicts, and regional destabilization. Such statements expose a thinking that views entire regions as chessboards, and nations as expendable pieces.
Any reckless “adventure” involving Balochistan—God forbid—would not merely be a mistake, it would be a grave injustice to Pakistan and a direct assault on its stability and sovereignty.
Balochistan is not an ordinary province; it is Pakistan’s most sensitive, strategic, and vulnerable region.
Why Terrorism Continues in Pakistan?
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, terrorists continue targeting civilians every month, while still receiving sympathy and shelter from some local populations. In a recently circulated video, the locals are helping a terrorist evade security forces.
When such militants later attack markets, mosques, or public gatherings, the same communities ask , where the terrorists came from and how they regained strength?
I compare this to the Quetta railway attack, where nearby homes and vehicles of civilians were damaged and civilians killed. Instead of collectively condemning the Khawarijs and their sponsors, the law enforcers and security forces were blamed for intelligence failure.
Some individuals glorify such terrorists, while parts of society treat them as heroes.The terrorists are poisonous snakes that cannot change their nature. Those who shelter them ultimately become their victims as well.
What is the Solution to Terrorism?
A law should be enacted under which anyone involved in terrorism or facilitating terrorism would have their family properties, assets, and bank accounts confiscated.
Their blood relatives should be arrested and severely punished.
If the houses of terrorists and their facilitators are burned down, it would set an example for others.
What happens now is that members of the BLA and TTP Khawarij accept money and put their own lives at risk because they believe their families left behind will continue to live comfortably.
That route must be blocked. They should know that whatever actions they commit, those left behind will also suffer the consequences.
Another important point:
When someone “likes” a social media post, it means they approve of the content and message of that post.
After yesterday’s tragic incident in Quetta, in which BLA terrorists targeted ordinary Baloch civilians, supporters of an anti-state political party, were blaming institutions instead of the terrorists and attempting to shield the BLA militants.
Many known and unknown supporters were flooding such posts with likes and comments. Action should also be taken against those who support terrorists in this way.
Conclusion
Terrorism cannot be eliminated without effectively tackling and neutralising both internal facilitators and external support. Unless both are neutralised, innocent people will continue to die across Pakistan — from Islamabad to Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Quetta, Khuzdar, and Chaman.
Fitna al Khawarij
It is an organized terrorist network that spreads violence, propaganda, instability, and destruction while falsely using religion as justification.
Such groups have targeted schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, and other public infrastructure in an effort to destabilize the state and spread fear and chaos.
The leadership of these groups, including Noor Wali and Bashir Zeb, operating from safe havens in Afghanistan are wholly responsible for inciting young people toward violence.
Reportedly, Noor Wali receives $43,000 per month, presenting terrorism as a profitable enterprise rather than genuine jihad. The salary of each terrorist is raised to Rupees 150,000, while the family of a suicide bombers gets much more.
More than 1,800 religious scholars under the “Paigham-e-Pakistan” initiative rejected Noor Wali’s movement and declared its actions un-Islamic and forbidden.
Islam is a religion of peace, tolerance, and respect for human life, whereas these militant groups promote bloodshed and chaos.
I salute Pakistan’s armed forces for sacrificing their lives in the fight against terrorism. The Pakistani public rejects extremist agendas and stands with state institutions in pursuit of peace, stability, and development.
Today, Pakistan has placed itself as an indispensable security player in the Middle East, and has faded out the Indian military and geopolitical dominance in South Asia.
Time for Introspection
The entire Pakistani nation must pause and think deeply. Balochistan must never be dragged into external rivalries, intelligence games, or geopolitical experiments. Any attempt to inflame tensions or exploit internal vulnerabilities will only serve hostile agendas and bring untold suffering to Pakistan.
This is a time for introspection, national unity, vigilance, and strategic wisdom. History is unforgiving to nations that ignore early warnings.
Pakistan must stay alert.
Balochistan must remain secure.
And the nation must stand united.
About the Author
Brigadier (Retd) Asif Haroon Raja, SI (M) is a war veteran. He is Command and Staff Course and War Course qualified, holds an MSc in War Studies, and served as Defence Attaché in Egypt and Sudan, as well as Dean of the Corps of Military Attachés in Cairo.
He is a defence, security, and geopolitical analyst, international columnist, author of five books, former Chairman of Thinkers Forum Pakistan, Patron-in-Chief of Centre for Development Studies Think Tank, Director of Meesakh Research Centre; he regularly appears on media platforms.
