Mahrang Langho, daughter of the notorious Balochistan Liberation Army ( BLA) leader Langho, takes three trips to Europe in a year if not more to meet her friends, her mentors and paymasters. Since she has clicked and has a big following in troubled Balochistan, she has become the darling of foreign agencies hostile to Pakistan.
She is heavily funded by foreign agencies to enable her to run the Baloch Yekjehti Committee (BYC) in Baluchistan, and to subvert the minds of the younger generation and the Baloch women of the province. Even the Baloch women suicide bombers draw inspiration from her.
BYC is the political wing of BLA and is the main strength of this internationally banned outfit, since it acts as its eyes and ears and helps in recruiting rebels, and in fanning the fictitious narrative of missing persons, as well as promoting Baloch nationalism and hatred against Punjabis and other nationalities.
The students of colleges and universities, teachers and the educated segment of Baluchistan have to a large extent been influenced by Dr Mahrang. Her foreign patrons and the Baloch nationalist leaders have helped her in gaining popularity in her province.
Apart from her favourite topic of missing persons, mutilated dead bodies, and anti-CPEC/Gwadar stance, her other popular narratives are social, political, economic grievances of the people, backwardness of the province, and painting Punjab, Punjab dominated federal government and the military establishment as looters and usurpers of the provincial resources.
The blame is shifted from the gluttonous Baloch Sardars to outsiders, and this narrative suits the exploitive Sardars, who are chiefly responsible for keeping the people of Balochistan illiterate and the province backward. She has never censured the terrorism of BLA and other Baloch rebel groups involved in anti-state activities. She has never uttered a word of sympathy for the people belonging to other provinces brutally murdered by BLA terrorists. She is silent over the horrid attack of BLA on Jaffar Express train on 11 March and killing of 27 innocent passengers.
Recently, she and her BYC members forcibly stole the dead bodies of BLA militants from Quetta District hospital that were killed by the security forces in the Jaffar Express train incident.
BYC didn’t want the dead bodies to be identified by the hospital staff and the next of kin of the deceased, since all of them had been shown as missing persons.
When the police intervened and tried to foil their forcible stealth in broad daylight, she and her followers created a ruckus and blocked the main Sariab road. In the scuffle, deaths and injuries took place on both sides. Reportedly she and the ruffians have been arrested. Mahrang has a major role in making Baluchistan explosive.
Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) is keen to include BYC and Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) (political wing of TTP) in its planned grand alliance after the Eid-ul-Fitr.
The incumbent government and the army have firmed up and are determined to eliminate the scourge of terrorism in KP and Balochistan since terrorism has become an existential threat. In the recently held National Security Council (NSC) meeting in Islamabad, it was agreed in principle that the much-delayed Operation Azm-e-Istehkam must be launched in the two conflict zones, and all stake holders to implement the 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) in letter and spirit.
Only PTI and its allies Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (Pk MAP), Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) and Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) are against military operations and are resisting it on the plea that force is not the answer and that dialogue with the militant groups as well as the IEA should take precedent. The Chief Minister of KP Ali Ameen Gandapur claimed that he could convince Kabul to resolve the standoff between the two neighbours.
They ignore the fact that Pakistan has been consistently in touch with Kabul and have been trying hard to convince the interim regime to prevent the use of Afghan soil for cross border terrorism, but in vain.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has not only refused to cooperate, but its Afghan militants have often been part of TTP attacking groups.
During its rule, PTI had committed the blunder of secretly negotiating with the proscribed TTP from September to November 2021 with the help of Sirajuddin Haqqani. During those three months there was a ceasefire.
The TTP broke the ceasefire when its illegitimate demands were not agreed to by our parliament. From that time onwards, the second round of terrorism in Pakistan surged and it intensified with every passing year.
Today, IEA and TTP are on one page, and both are affiliated with BLA and have safe sanctuaries in Afghanistan. Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has re-entered Afghanistan and is fully backing across the border attacks of TTP, BLA and Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) in Pakistan.
The current situation is much more complex and dangerous than what it was in August 2021. KP is the most affected province, and the reasons are lopsided priorities, weak governance, poor management of KP government. It is either soft, or is complicit with the TTP. It has done little to deal with the massive rise in terror attacks in KP, and has no desire to eradicate terrorism.
It is an open secret that Gandapur had inducted armed TTP and Afghan militants in his three caravans last year to storm Islamabad and Punjab. The Afghan militants were either recruited from the illegal Afghan refugees, or directly from Afghanistan.
With this mindset, one wonders, what makes Gandapur so confident that he will be able to resolve issues with Afghanistan on his own, and that too when his house is divided and full of fault lines? Is he secretly in alliance with the TTP and IEA?
