Deputy Commissioner Quetta has temporarily closed the Shaban picnic point for all kinds of tourists and picnics.
The picnic point, located on the outskirts of Quetta, was closed in the aftermath of the detention of ten picnickers from the site by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). The group’s spokesperson, Jeeyand Baloch, claimed responsibility for the detentions in a media statement, saying that the BLA’s Fateh Squad unit carried out the operation and detained ten individuals it suspected of being intelligence agents.
Related: 10 Abducted Including Punjab Residents, BLA Claims Responsibility
The BLA Intelligence Wing had provided information that some suspects were moving suspiciously in the Shaban area, on which the BLA’s Fateh Squad immediately took action in the area and arrested ten suspects, said the spokesperson.
Three of the Ten men arrested have been released while the remaining seven are still in BLA’s custody.
Related: BLA Releases 3 Detainees, Including Punjab Resident, After Proving Innocence
The BLA’s spokesperson further said that, after a preliminary investigation, the accused were presented in the ‘Baloch national court’, where seven of the ten suspects confessed to their crimes, including the charges of supporting the occupied Pakistani forces in the Baloch genocide and harming Baloch national interests. Their punishment will be executed very soon, the group said.
The spokesperson said that the BLA’s Senior Command Council decided that before executing the punishment of the detained ‘agents’, it would offer a prisoner swap to the Pakistani authorities, as per the international laws of war. In this regard, the army is given time a one-week time to the Pakistani authorities for the prisoner swap. The group said that once that time has been completed, the detained agents will be executed immediately.
However, the position of the Pakistani authorities regarding the exchange of prisoners is not yet clear. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistani military, has not issued a response to the BLA’s offer of a prisoner exchange. The lack of response from ISPR leaves the situation unresolved, with the fate of the seven remaining detainees uncertain.
Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is one of the active “pro-independence” groups in Balochistan. This group always reportedly attacks on Pakistani army and its intelligence agencies as well as other interests of the state. Earlier this BLA in a similar incident detained two Pakistani soldiers, including a senior non-commissioned officer, Subaidar Mohammad Khan, and a sepoy, Abdul Rasheed in the Margat area of Bolan district of Balochistan, in October 2023.
Related: BLA Claims Responsibility for Detention of Two Pakistani Soldiers | The Balochistan Post