The Baloch Liberation Army’s media wing Hakkal on Sunday released the video message of Bilal Shahwani, known by the nom de guerre Saahin, who carried out the 24 May suicide attack on a Pakistani military shuttle train near Chaman Phatak in Quetta.
The attack targeted a shuttle train carrying Pakistani military personnel from Quetta Cantonment to the city’s railway station. The BLA had earlier said the operation was carried out jointly by its Majeed Brigade and ZIRAB, the group’s intelligence wing. It claimed that 82 Pakistani military personnel were killed and more than 121 others injured.
The video shows Shahwani seated inside the purported vehicle used in the attack, speaking to another fighter before the operation.
He says he had been waiting for the moment for three months and describes the attack as an “Eid gift for the enemy”, adding that it was meant to send a message.
“Sangat [Comrade], I am sitting in my vehicle. I am taking an Eid gift for the enemy. I have been waiting for this moment for a long time. It has been three months. Now a message has to be given to the enemy,” Shahwani says in the video.
Shahwani then says the war would continue and calls on Baloch youth to become part of it. He says he is sacrificing himself in the name of those who had died before him, adding that earlier fighters had already conveyed their message to the Baloch nation and the world through their actions.
In his message, Shahwani says he wants to tell both the Pakistani military and the world that no power, whether Pakistan, China or any other state, can take Balochistan’s land and resources by force.
Referring to the late BLA leader Aslam Baloch, he says no one can take “even a stone” from Balochistan without the consent of the Baloch people.
Shahwani says the sacrifices of earlier fighters were meant to make the nation understand why young people were choosing “fidayee” operations, and what he described as the nature of the conflict in Balochistan.
Shahwani accused Pakistani forces, including the army, Frontier Corps, Counter Terrorism Department and police, of killings, enforced disappearances and repression in Balochistan.
He alleged that state policies had pushed Baloch youth into drugs, tribal conflicts and internal divisions to keep them away from what he called their national struggle.
He said the Baloch people’s “real war” was against what he described as outside occupation, adding that peace could not come without armed struggle and sacrifice.
Shahwani said an “honourable death with one’s head held high” was better than what he described as a life lived under humiliation.
The message also rejects allegations that BLA fighters are “brainwashed, emotional or foreign agents”.
Shahwani refers to earlier figures associated with the group, including Aslam Baloch and Shari Baloch, saying their sacrifices had answered those accusations.
“No agent can send his own child to be torn into pieces,” Shahwani says, referring to the late BLA leader Aslam Baloch and his son Rehan Baloch. He adds that “no one, no matter how emotional or brainwashed”, could leave behind innocent children, referring to Shari Baloch as another example of sacrifice.
Referring to figures associated with earlier Majeed Brigade “fidayee” operations, Shahwani says every section of Baloch society would have to follow the path of sacrifice if Pakistan was to be driven out of Balochistan, adding that “nothing can happen without blood and sacrifice”.
In the final part of the recording, Shahwani thanks what he calls his “national army”, the Baloch Liberation Army, saying earlier Majeed Brigade fighters had laid the foundation for the path he was following.
“Comrades, this is not a farewell. We are together,” he says at the end of the message.