On Saturday, the Pakistani Army said that it had successfully brought an end to the four-day-long clashes between separatists in Balochistan and the Army. According to the released statement, 20 militants and nine soldiers were killed in the assaults.
Since Wednesday, separatists in the Balochistan province orchestrated two attacks on army checkpoints in Naushki and Panjgur districts. Subsequently, a curfew was imposed in the region with internet and phone services being cut off. While the Naushki violence was curbed by Thursday, the assaults in Panjgur only ended on Saturday.
As the military moved into Panjgur, the militants fled the region allowing the Pakistani army to conduct a “clearance operation.” The statement said, “All encircled terrorists were killed in today’s operation as they failed to surrender.”
Furthermore, the military also blamed India for supporting separatist groups in Balochistan. “As per the initial investigation, intelligence agencies have intercepted communications between terrorists and their handlers in Afghanistan and India,” the Army said.
In response to the military’s statement, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) — the armed ethnic group leading the separatist movement — said that “all targets [had been] successfully achieved” and that the militants had killed 80 soldiers. The release further said that 16 of its fighters had “sacrificed themselves” in the attacks.
Balochistan, one of the largest yet most impoverished regions in Pakistan, has been ravaged by ethnic and separatist unrest for years now. The region has become a breeding ground for separatist groups and the Taliban, specifically in the area bordering Afghanistan. While mainstream Baloch politicians have strived for greater autonomy and control over resources, armed ethnic Baloch groups have simultaneously been engaging in a violent separatist war against Pakistani security forces for more than a decade now, demanding full independence for the province.
The inherent distrust in the Pakistani government and related authorities is not a novel challenge for the region. Balochistan witnesses regular violence caused by the separatist group BLA, which is demanding autonomy for the province. The separatist movement is based on the belief that Balochistan does not receive its fair share of the revenue from the mineral and petrochemical extraction operations in its region
Their resistance and demands for autonomy grew stronger after the announcement of a $6 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Project (CPEC) in 2015. On November 5, 2019, the Chief Minister of Balochistan Jam Kamal Khan approved the “Gwadar Master Plan.” Accordingly, Gwadar is to be developed into a massive port and forms a crucial part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The master plan also included the construction of a New Gwadar International Airport. Balochistan’s residents believe that the project is imperialistic as the influx of tourism and industries in the region would attack the ethnic dominance of Baloch people in the province. Previously, this has led to several attacks by Baloch nationalists and other organisations on Chinese engineers and workers.