Pakistani regime’s “claim” that Paki security forces “killed” 27 Baloch militants in the Kachhi area of Balochistan on Monday is undoubtedly a spectacular achievement for two reasons. One, due Pakistan Army’s round-the-clock ground and air surveillance, using state of the art equipment and satellite imagery supplied by Beijing, Baloch fighters avoid making large hideouts as they have discernable signatures. Instead, survival instinct compels Baloch sarmachars [guerrillas] to disperse themselves in penny packets in the rugged mountainous terrain to avoid detection.
Secondly, Baloch sarmachars [guerrillas] are known to create hideouts exploiting dominating heights with limited accessibility as this offers them good visibility enabling early detection of any approaching security forces and facilitating their timely escape. Even if they are surprised, occupying heights provides inherent defensibility to temporarily pin down the attackers and melt away into the mountains. Hence, for the Pakistani security forces to successfully eliminate two and a half dozen Baloch fighters in a single operation is no mean achievement.
Whereas there shouldn’t be any reason to doubt this claim by the Pakistan Army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR], but Rawalpindi’s poor track record as regards accurate reporting does make one apprehensive. How can one ever trust an army that can go to the extent of abandoning its own dead during the 1999 Kargil War just to buttress its brazen lie that the infiltrators were mujahids and not regulars of the Pakistan Army? Moreover, there are other indications that make
ISPR’s present claim sound suspicious.
Firstly, despite claiming that “Multiple hideouts, along with caches of arms, ammunition, and explosives, were also destroyed during the operation,” ISPR has not identified the Baloch armed group to which the alleged deceased militants belonged. Identification of militants killed during chance encounters is at times difficult due to absence of any identity documents on their person. Conversely, as militant hideouts invariably contain ample material that clearly reveals the identity of the concerned group, the Pakistan Army’s failure to name the group involved is indeed inexplicable.
Secondly, the ISPR’s claim of the Pakistan Army hitting “multiple hideouts” in a single day, though theoretically possible, is practically unattainable. Since Baloch fighters are well aware of the fact that the Pakistan Army has no inhibitions in using heavy artillery, armed drones and even the air force against them, they ensure that their hideouts are widely dispersed so that they can’t be addressed simultaneously. In addition, it’s a universal practice amongst militants the world over that as soon as a threat is perceived by any group in hiding, its members immediately provide an early warning to their counterparts in the general area regarding the same over the radio/ mobile phones to help them to disperse and hide.
So, while the security forces may have hit a hideout after having “stealthily cordoned off the area” as claimed, given the widely dispersed location of hideouts, doesn’t ISPR’s claim of the Pakistan Army having concurrently/near simultaneously destroyed “multiple hideouts” and killing 27 Baloch fighters, border on the improbable? As per the ISPR, “The killed terrorists were involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces as well as innocent civilians and were highly wanted by the law enforcement agencies.” Even if one accepts this claim, the question that arises is that if the deceased were “highly wanted by the law enforcement agencies,” then how come their identity and affiliation is not known to the Pakistan Army?Doesn’t this omission raise serious doubts regarding veracity of the ISPR’s claim? Could portraying the deceased as ruthless terrorists with blood of security force personnel and civilians on their hands be a preemptive attempt on Rawalpindi’s part to possibly cover a fake encounter?
Supporters of the Pakistan Army would outrightly reject the fake encounter hypothesis on the ground that since Rawalpindi was under no pressure, where was the need for the army to orchestrate a fake encounter? Those who offer this reasoning forget that last week’s Khuzdar incident in which Baloch Liberation Army [BLA] fighters [according to Dawn], “rampaged through the Zehri area of Khuzdar district, pillaging at will,” made a mockery of the much touted “comprehensive military operation,” against militants in the Southwestern province of Balochistan announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and emphatically endorsed by Pakistan Army chief Gen Syed Asim Munir just two months ago.
Though there hasn’t been any serious discussion in Pakistan on the Khuzdar incident [obviously due to fear of inviting Rawalpindi’s wrath], this monumental debacle is definitely one of the most telling embarrassment for the Pakistan Army in recent times for two reasons. One, despite security force presence in the area, not even one BLA fighter who took part in the Khuzdar incident was killed or injured, which clearly indicates that the personnel of army and paramilitary force [which is commanded by officers from the Pakistan Army] offered no resistance to the marauders.
Two, according to the commissioner of Kalat, BLA fighters ran riot in the Zehri area of Khuzdar for nearly eight hours. This could only happen if the army and paramilitary force personnel had either run away or opted to lie low rather than face the attackers, and this collective act of cowardice is indeed extremely embarrassing for the Pakistan Army. Similarly, arrival of troops to restore order in this area only after BLA fighters had left says a lot and doesn’t inspire much confidence in Rawalpindi’s oft-repeated assurance that the Pakistan Army will “eliminate the menace of terrorism.” By observing that “The first thing that strikes one about the Khuzdar attack is the delayed response of the security forces,” and demanding that “Those responsible must explain how terrorists were able to commandeer the area for eight hours,” in its January 10 editorial, Dawn has aptly summed up the pathetic response of the Pakistan Army and the paramilitaries under its command. Hence, to say that Rawalpindi was under no pressure to ‘produce results’ in order to assuage public ire is only denying the obvious.
The Pakistan Army has a notorious reputation for staging extrajudicial killings and passing off those murdered as terrorists just to cover up its military reverses. An example is what happened after the 2022 abduction and subsequent killing of serving Pakistan Army officer Lt Col Laeeq Mirza Baig by BLA fighters in Balochistan’s Ziarat area. Soon after Lt Col Baig was killed, ISPR announced that nine terrorists involved in his murder had been killed, and Pakistan Army’s swift action in eliminating the
perpetrators were widely applauded.
This euphoria however came to an abrupt end when Human Rights Council of Balochistan [HRCB] took to social media stating that “5 bodies out of 9 have been identified & all 5 persons are registered enforced disappeared persons who had remained in the custody of forces for months & years.” Interestingly, amongst the dead passed off as BLA fighters there was an engineer who had been abducted in broad daylight from his office at Airport Road, Quetta in 2021 and a practicing physiotherapist abducted by the Pakistan Army in 2022.
Returning to the present, no Baloch armed group has admitted losing 27 of its fighters in a clash with the Pakistan Army and Rawalpindi would argue that this is because militant groups refrain from accepting having suffered such heavy losses as this demoralises their cadres. However, while the Pakistan Army has a history of concealing unpleasant facts from its people, Baloch armed groups are certainly more forthcoming and there’s a convincing reason for this.
After the Ziarat incident mentioned above, BLA rubbished ISPR’s claim that the Pakistan Army had killed nine of its fighters. Its statement read, “Baloch Liberation Army takes utmost pride in its struggle and the martyrdom of our comrades during this struggle. BLA announces all martyrdoms of its members with great glory and honour. If any of our freedom fighters had lost their lives in this successful operation, we would have taken pride in making it public and paying rich tributes to them.” This argument definitely makes sense. And herein lies the difference between Pakistan Army and the Baloch armed groups!