Quetta, Feb 14 (IANS) Pakistan’s Balochistan is no longer just a troubled province but stands at the intersection of insurgency, regional rivalry and great-power interests.

Amid the volatile and complex environment, every new security operation or foreign partnership risks further complicating an already intricate conflict, a report said on Saturday.

“The recent wave of coordinated attacks by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) across more than 10 cities in the troubled province of Balochistan, which takes up 44 per cent of the entire country of Pakistan, wasn’t just another insurgent spectacle; it was a clear strategic escalation. The scale, timing, and coordination of the assaults showed that the province’s long-running conflict has entered a more dangerous phase,” a report in Asia Sentinel detailed.

“What was once a localised separatist insurgency has evolved into a crowded militant ecosystem, where ethnic rebels, jihadist outfits, and transnational networks now intersect. In 2025, there were 1557 attacks in the province. This is not merely a security crisis. It is the accumulated consequence of decades of political neglect, economic extraction, and an overreliance on military force in a province that demanded political accommodation instead,” it added.

According to the report, the insurgency is longstanding, with Baloch separatist groups waging multiple phases of conflict against the Pakistani authorities since the nation’s early years.

“Yet the current phase, ongoing since the early 2000s, has become more urban, more technologically adaptive, and more willing to target infrastructure and foreign investments. What distinguishes the latest attacks from the past is not just their brutality, but their coordination – evidence of improved planning, communications and recruitment capacity among insurgent networks,” it mentioned.

“This shift exposes the limits of a strategy that has relied overwhelmingly on kinetic force. For more than two decades, successive governments have treated Balochistan primarily as a security problem. The results are visible: cycles of insurgency, heavy militarisation, and persistent political alienation,” it stated.

The report stressed that the convergence of diverse actors creates a complex security dynamic with the BLA, an ethno-nationalist insurgent group seeking independence, while Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and IS-K advance transnational jihadist agendas despite sharing little ideological common ground.

“Yet they now intersect around overlapping targets. The BLA has repeatedly targeted Chinese projects and personnel, including the port in Gwadar, accusing Beijing of exploiting Balochistan’s resources. The TTP and IS-K, meanwhile, frame China as an enemy due to its policies toward Muslim minorities in Xinjiang,” it noted.

–IANS

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