The Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) has claimed responsibility for the killing of nine individuals allegedly affiliated with Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies during what it described as “Operation Baam” in the Sarha Dakei area. The incident, which took place on Monday, involved armed fighters stopping two passenger buses and identifying the individuals based on what the group said was prior intelligence regarding their alleged association with Pakistani security forces.
In a media statement, BLF spokesperson Major Gwahram Baloch said the nine individuals were removed from the buses and executed after being identified as security personnel and intelligence agents. The spokesperson rejected reports that the victims were Punjabi civilians targeted on ethnic grounds, calling such claims “false propaganda” by the Pakistani military and media.
“The individuals killed were not ordinary passengers nor targeted due to their ethnic identity. They were members of Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies traveling in civilian disguise,” the statement said. It added that BLF’s intelligence wing had already gathered evidence of their affiliations and passed the information to operational units ahead of the attack.
Major Gwahram criticized what he described as a “media campaign” by the Pakistani state and accused international news outlets, including BBC Urdu, of disseminating the state’s version of events without verification. He claimed that hundreds of vehicles and buses were stopped and searched across Balochistan during the operation, but that no harm was done to any passengers based solely on their ethnicity or regional background.
The BLF spokesperson stated that the group is not issuing this statement to justify its actions before “biased” Pakistanis, particularly the Punjabi public, but rather to expose what it described as a Pakistani attempt to mislead international opinion against the Baloch national liberation movement through “false propaganda.” He said this misinformation campaign is part of a broader media war being waged by the Pakistani state against the Baloch freedom struggle.
He further argued that the presence of Punjabi individuals traveling through Balochistan did not, in itself, indicate a civilian purpose, given Balochistan’s lack of large cities, industries, or employment hubs. Nonetheless, he stated that individuals for whom there was no evidence of state affiliation were allowed to proceed without harm.
The spokesperson emphasized that the BLF’s actions were carefully calculated and not driven by ethnic motives, reiterating that no one was targeted based on regional or racial identity or out of mere suspicion.