The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has strongly condemned the recent massacre of 21 Pashtun workers in Dukki, Balochistan, distancing itself from the incident and accusing the Pakistani military of orchestrating the killings to create discord between Baloch and Pashtun nations.
In a statement issued on Saturday, BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch said the killings were part of a “deceitful strategy” orchestrated by the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies to incite conflict between the two ethnic groups.
“The massacre of innocent Pashtun workers is part of the Pakistani military’s plans to sow discord between the brotherly nations of Baloch and Pashtun,” the statement said. “We hold the Punjabi state responsible for this atrocity and assure that those responsible for the murder of these innocent people will be held accountable.”
The BLA also vowed that both Baloch and Pashtun people would strengthen their resistance against what it called a “common enemy”—the Pakistani state—and expressed confidence that the “Punjabi state” would ultimately face defeat.
In addition to condemning the Dukki massacre, the BLA took responsibility for two separate attacks on Pakistani military targets in the Saami and Turbat areas of Balochistan.
The first attack took place last night in Saami, Kech district, where BLA fighters reportedly launched grenades and opened fire on a Pakistani military camp. According to the BLA, at least three Pakistani soldiers were injured, and the military camp sustained further financial losses.
In a second attack in Turbat, BLA fighters targeted and killed an alleged military informant, Mullah Yaqoob, near the city’s fish market. Yaqoob, also known by the alias Qureshi, had been working undercover as a spice seller while serving as an informant for Pakistan’s Military Intelligence (MI), the BLA claimed.
The statement added that Yaqoob was involved in assisting the Pakistani military in its operations against Baloch fighters and had been recruiting other informers in the Turbat area.
The BLA said that these attacks are part of its ongoing struggle to achieve the withdrawal of Pakistani forces from Balochistan, vowing that their resistance will continue until Balochistan is liberated from what they termed as “occupation.”