Quetta, Feb 11, 2026
The coordinated attacks conducted recently by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) have once again exposed the fragility of Pakistan’s Balochistan province, a report has highlighted.
“Islamabad’s insistence on framing Balochistan solely as a security problem is proving increasingly short-sighted. Peaceful forms of dissent — from marches by families of the disappeared to student protests — have been met with arrests, media blackouts, and intimidation.
As long as the State refuses to acknowledge that the insurgency is driven by genuine political and social demands — control over resources, political autonomy, respect for identity, and accountability for human rights violations — it strengthens the argument that armed struggle is the only remaining option. In doing so, Pakistan risks transforming a political conflict into a permanent state of exception,” a report in EU Reporter stated.
In recent years, Pakistan has replaced governance with military management, presenting the political crisis as a security issue.
The downplaying of military casualties, continuous allegations of enforced disappearances and criminalisation of Baloch people is not collateral damage but part of a deliberate plan of control. By refusing to acknowledge the political and social roots of the insurgency, Pakistan deepens alienation and legitimises rupture in the eyes of people of Balochistan.
“If this trajectory continues, Balochistan risks following a familiar historical path: from an ‘internal security issue’ to a violent separation — a new Bangladesh, this time produced by Islamabad’s own choices, writes Dimitra Staikou.
The report details that this instability persists despite Balochistan’s immense mineral wealth and its strategic importance to both Chinese and American investment ambitions.
Instead of holding meaningful political dialogue with local residents, Pakistan has doubled down on repression and external blame and claimed that unrest is foreign-sponsored sabotage, resulting in Balochistan being presented as an investment frontier and governed as an enemy zone internally.
According to the EU Reporter, security operations, extensive deployment of forces and accusations of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances have established a cycle of violence in Balochistan. Each operation presented as “restoring order” reinforces perceptions of occupation and promotes recruitment into armed separatist groups like the BLA.
“This longstanding conflict has now acquired a critical economic and geopolitical dimension. Balochistan lies at the heart of China’s investments in Pakistan through the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and is also central to Islamabad’s recent attempts to attract US capital into the mining sector.
The province’s vast reserves of copper, gold, coal, and gas have become central to Pakistan’s economic recovery narrative. Yet the state struggles to guarantee even basic security for heavily guarded infrastructure projects. Persistent attacks signal that militarisation has failed to create sustainable stability,” the EU Reporter stated.
Pakistan presents Balochistan as a “land of opportunity” while considering it as a permanent security threat internally at the same time. Balochistan controls Pakistan’s access to the Arabian Sea, borders Iran and Afghanistan and is the land corridor that connects China with the Indian Ocean.
Balochistan is the geostrategic core of CPEC for China. This geopolitical value of Balochistan results in Pakistan promising stability and development internationally while treating the region domestically with repression, casualty minimisation, and collective suspicion towards local residents, the report mentioned.(Agency)
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