Bloodbath in Balochistan

In yet another cold-blooded massacre, at least 23 travellers were shot dead after being offloaded from trucks and buses and having their identities checked on a highway in the Musakhail area of Balochistan. All but two of them hailed from Punjab. Such grisly executions based on ethnic profiling have been carried out with disturbing frequency by the banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) which staged a string of deadly synchronised terrorist attacks in multiple districts of the volatile province on the night between August 25 and 26. The brazen attacks were timed with the 18th death anniversary of Baloch chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti who was killed in a military operation in 2006.

The BLA claims to be fighting a separatist insurgency, but the group's wanton use of violence against unarmed civilians defies all international rules and conventions. This is sheer terrorism, and not a separatist insurgency. There is no other way to describe such savagery.

Stability remains elusive in Balochistan since Bugti's killing. What started as socio-economic and political unrest has now morphed into a reign of terror. With its long, porous borders, the resource-rich province has become a staging ground for separatist terrorists, hostile agencies' sleeper cells, and criminals of all shades. These elements exploit the longstanding grievances in the impoverished province to feed a sense of alienation among the local population and peddle their extremist narrative.

The state's response appears to be stagnant, mainly relying on kinetic actions. Use of military force should not be the only solution. It could instead be one component of the strategy that must also involve non-kinetic measures, including redressal of the genuine grievances of local population, mitigating the sense of alienation, deoxygenating the terrorist narrative, and embracing reconcilable elements within the Baloch groups. It is time to go back to the drawing board to work out a comprehensive strategy for durable peace and stability in Balochistan.