Pakistan fostering jihadists to weaken Baloch voices: Report

Quetta, Sep 8 For decades, Pakistan's military establishment has fostered and harboured jihadist groups as tools of regional strategy to silence Baloch voices of resistance against Islamabad's atrocities, a report said on Monday.

The Islamic State Pakistan Province (ISPP), an offshoot of the terrorist organisation ISIS-Khorasan Province (ISKP), which claimed responsibility for the September 2 suicide attack on the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) rally in Quetta, exposed the alarming and serious security vacuum Pakistan has allowed to deepen in Balochistan, according to a report published in The Balochistan Post.

It further stated that the attack, which claimed at least 14 people and injured more than 30, is not an isolated incident but the result of years of Pakistan's policies aimed at destabilising Balochistan and creating a breeding ground for global terrorist outfits.

"These same forces have now turned inward, directly targeting ethnic nationalists, progressives, and critics of the state. ISKP's propaganda, particularly the booklet Qaumiyat Ka Fareb (The Deception of Nationalism), makes clear that Baloch, Pashtun, and progressive voices are seen as threats equal to, if not greater than, foreign powers," the report read.

The report further stated that the "overlap between the ISKP's declared enemies, which align with Pakistan's own adversaries -- BNP-M, BYC, Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP) -- raises the uncomfortable question: who benefits when these groups are silenced?"

Calling the Quetta bombing the latest incident in the pattern, adopted by Islamabad to weaken Balochistan's fight, the report noted, "From the March 2025 attempt on BNP-M leaders in Mastung, to ISKP's explicit threats against the BLA, BLF, and BYC, the militant agenda appears increasingly aligned with Pakistan's long-standing campaign to weaken Baloch resistance."

The report cited documents recovered in Kabul during an operation against ISKP by Afghanistan's General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) last year, and said that these mentioned the terror outfit's "hitlist" of prominent critics of Islamabad, including Akhtar Mengal and Dr. Mahrang Baloch.

"It is difficult to ignore that these very individuals are also the central civilian opposition to Pakistan's military dominance in Balochistan," the report further added.

The Balochistan Post report also mentioned that Baloch fighters destroyed an ISKP camp in Mastung, killing dozens of terrorists, which it claimed, reflects that nationalist groups are "directly opposed to rather than aligned" with international jihadism.

Rather than safeguarding its citizens, the report said, Islamabad has repeatedly placed greater emphasis on targeting nationalist movements over destroying transnational terrorist infrastructure.

It said that through this selective approach, space has been created for the terror organisation ISIS to gain a foothold in Balochistan, making it into a new theatre of conflict.

According to the report, the Quetta attack is not just an act of terrorism, but a part of a "broader convergence of interests between Pakistan's establishment and ISIS affiliates in silencing dissenting, pro-independence, and democratic Baloch voices."

"Unless this nexus is broken, Balochistan risks becoming not just a battleground between nationalists and the Pakistani military, but also a staging ground for international jihadists who exploit the very chaos Pakistan has engineered," the report noted.

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