A new United Nations Security Council (UNSC) report has confirmed that 32 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a major attack carried out by the Baloch Liberation Army’s (BLA) Majeed Brigade in Kech district last year, a figure far higher than what Pakistan publicly acknowledged at the time.
According to the UN’s 37th Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team report, dated 4 February, the attack occurred on 16 September in the Dasht area of Kech, along a key route of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The BLA’s Majeed Brigade targeted a Pakistani military convoy consisting of six buses and three military vehicles.
“On 16 September, the BLA ambushed a Pakistani military convoy patrolling the corridor, killing 32 troops. While counter-terrorism operations by Pakistan restricted the BLA’s operational space, it remained active,” the report said.
Pakistan, however, had initially confirmed the deaths of only five soldiers.
BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch said in a statement that the group’s “ground sources and intelligence wing Zirab” had verified that at least 32 personnel were killed and dozens more injured, including several officers.
The Kech ambush was one of four major attacks carried out by the BLA’s Majeed Brigade last year in Turbat, Bolan, Nushki and Kech. In each case, Pakistani officials acknowledged significantly lower casualty figures than those claimed by the group.
In March last year, the Majeed Brigade hijacked the Jaffar Express — an operation in which the BLA claimed to have captured more than 200 military personnel onboard.
The group later said the captives were executed. Pakistan did not publicly confirmed this. During a press conference, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Director General of the military’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said only 26 personnel were killed.
The disparity in casualty reporting resurfaced during the BLA’s recent Operation Herof 2.0. The Pakistani military acknowledged 22 security personnel deaths, while the BLA claimed to have killed more than 362 members of Pakistan’s army, Frontier Corps, police, Counter-Terrorism Department, intelligence agencies and pro-state militias over the course of a week-long campaign involving suicide attacks, ambushes and artillery strikes.