A daylight operation by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) in Saranan showed the group expanding its reach into Pashtun-majority areas and operating with growing confidence, while raising questions about security, two analysts told the BBC.
Heavily armed BLA fighters entered the town in Balochistan’s Pishin district on Aug. 20 and remained there for several hours, taking positions at key locations and seizing control of a police station and government offices.
The BLA said its fighters detained and later released 10 police personnel, seized weapons, ammunition and vehicles and destroyed the police station with explosives.
Public policy analyst Rafiullah Kakar described the operation as a significant development because the fighters entered a Pashtun area in broad daylight and withdrew without encountering resistance.
“Saranan is located on the main Quetta-Chaman highway,” Kakar said. “Their arrival there in broad daylight is extremely surprising and also raises a major question about the performance of the security institutions.”
Kakar said the operation demonstrated that the BLA could enter Pashtun areas at strategically important locations, including along the Quetta-Chaman highway, during daylight hours.
“It is also an indication of the growing strength and confidence of armed organisations, which, in one sense, represents a security failure,” he said.
Security analyst Mohammad Amir Rana, director of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), said the apparent objective was to demonstrate the BLA’s presence and signal that it had moved beyond Baloch-majority areas into Pashtun areas.
Rana said the group had previously carried out attacks in Pashtun-majority areas, but that the Saranan operation was particularly significant because Pishin directly adjoins Quetta, giving the attack greater strategic and symbolic importance.
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