A senior politician in Balochistan has said government ministers and party leaders can no longer travel safely by road, as armed groups expand their control over the region’s highways.
Former chief minister and ex-speaker Jan Muhammad Jamali told party workers at intra-party elections of the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) on Sunday that the security situation had deteriorated to the point where senior parliamentary figures, including himself, now avoided road journeys.
“Because of fear, I cannot pass through Bolan,” Jamali said. “Even [Former Senate Chairman] Sadiq Sanjrani cannot cross Noshki, and the situation in Kalat and other areas is also alarming.”
It should be noted that Baloch armed groups began asserting control over major highways across Balochistan after the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) launched Operation Herof in August 2024.
Analysts described it as the largest coordinated armed action in the history of the Baloch insurgency, involving simultaneous attacks across multiple districts, ambushes on convoys, and the seizure of police and Levies stations.”
The BLA claimed more than 130 Pakistani personnel were killed and highways from Makuran to Koh-e-Suleiman were cut off during the offensive. Since then, armed groups have staged ambushes, temporary checkpoints and highway blockades across much of the region.
On the first anniversary of Operation Herof last month, the BLA released a documentary declaring that a second phase of the operation would mark “the enemy’s downfall and the beginning of Baloch sovereignty.” The group’s leader, Bashir Zeb Baloch, said the offensive had “shook the enemy inside its fortresses, deserted its highways, and turned fear into a permanent guest in its dreams.”