Quetta, July 20 (IANS) The recent attack by Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) on the heavily-fortified compound of Shafiqur Rehman Mengal, a local leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district, was more than an insurgent strike targeting the very machinery underpinning Pakistan’s official counterterrorism narrative, a report has stated.
It argued that while Pakistani authorities claim to be fighting militancy in Balochistan for years, the state has governed through militants of its own. Mengal is not an aberration in that system but one of its most emblematic products.
According to a report in ‘Stringer Asia’, the Pakistani press described the BLA strike as an attack on the residence of a politician. It noted that this was technically correct in the same way that calling a military bunker a country house would be technically correct.
“On July 8, the Majeed Brigade of the Baloch Liberation Army attacked the heavily fortified Khuzdar compound of Shafiqur Rehman Mengal, President of the Jhalawan Panel and a local leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party. A vehicle packed with explosives struck the main entrance, destroying the gate, defensive positions and part of the building. Armed fighters then entered the compound, beginning a battle that continued for more than three hours and involved rockets, grenades and heavy weapons,” the report detailed.
“Pakistani accounts initially reported at least 17 people killed, including Mengal’s guards and police personnel, with around 30 wounded. The BLA later claimed a higher toll, alleging that 34 members of Mengal’s network had died, including operatives connected to Islamic State Khorasan Province and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Mengal survived,” it added.
The report noted that far from being an ordinary Baloch tribal leader turned politician, Mengal has for nearly two decades been identified by Baloch nationalists, human rights activists and political rivals as one of the main architects of Pakistan backed death-squad network targeting the Baloch insurgency and civilian nationalist movements.
It highlighted that the organisation founded by Mengal- Musallah Defah Tanzeem (MDT) – was accused of targeting not only armed separatists but also students, political activists, journalists, religious minorities and even personal rivals. His compound and the areas under his control were frequently described as a “state within a state,” allegedly housing private detention centres and torture facilities where abducted individuals were interrogated beyond the reach of the law.
“This is why the attack on Mengal’s compound was politically more important than an ordinary strike on a pro-government figure. The BLA was attacking what it considers a central node in the Pakistani counterinsurgency system: a fortified space where tribal power, organised crime, jihadist militancy, electoral politics and military intelligence allegedly converge,” Stringer Asia asserted.
–IANS
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