The Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), also known as the Baloch Liberation Front, is an ethno-nationalist separatist organization currently fighting against the Pakistani government for an independent Baloch state.[3] The group was founded in 1964 by Juma Khan Marri in Damascus, Syria. In 1968, the BLF joined the Iranian Balochi Revolt, an insurgency of Baloch groups fighting the Iranian government for greater political autonomy.[4] During the revolt, the Iraqi government publicly supplied the BLF with weapons and operational support in an effort to destabilize and undermine Iran.[5] Decimated from five years of fighting, the BLF and other Baloch insurgent groups negotiated an end to the fighting with the Shah of Iran in 1973. In response to the agreement, Iraq decided to stop openly sending arms to the BLF but maintained its relationships with the organization’s leadership.
Following the end of the conflict in Iran, the BLF and other Baloch groups turned their attention to Pakistan. The groups demanded independence for the Pakistani province of Balochistan and incited a new insurgency, which became known as the Independent Movement of Balochistan (1973-1977). At the start of the insurgency, Iraq covertly supplied weapons to the BLF and other Baloch militant groups. In February 1973, the Pakistani government raided the Iraqi Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan and uncovered crates of small arms and explosives that were allegedly en route to the BLF and several other Baloch groups.[6] In response to the insurgency, the Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto dismissed the Baloch provincial government. This prompted the BLF and other Baloch insurgent groups to attack several Pakistani security forces convoys.[7] As the conflict escalated, the Pakistani government deployed 80,000 troops to Balochistan to fight an estimated 50,000 insurgents.[8] By 1974, government operations had pushed the BLF out of Balochistan and into Afghanistan. While the BLF was in exile in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union allegedly helped it regroup, allowing it to rejoin the Independent Balochistan Movement.[9] The insurgency came to an end in November 1977, after Pakistani security forces implemented martial law and the military established general amnesty for militants in the region.[10]
Little is known about the BLF’s activities between 1977 and 2004. However, reports seem to suggest that the group did not disband. In 2004, the group reemerged in the public eye when gunmen claiming to be BLF militants killed three Chinese foreign workers that were working on a Pakistani mega-development project in Balochistan. Shortly after, a public statement identified the gunmen as members of the BLF. The statement, issued by Dr. Allah Nazar, also annouced that Nazar had taken command of the BLF in 2003. Prior to this statement, Nazar was known for his position as the head of the Balochistan Student Organization – Azad (BSO-Azad), which sought to educate youth on political matters.[11]
In 2005, the BLF carried out multiple attacks, targeting Pakistani security forces, pipelines, and foreign workers.[12] On March 25, 2005, the Pakistani government captured Nazar, which temporarily halted BLF activities. Nazar was released a year later on June 20, 2006 after members of his BSO-Azad group went on a hunger strike to demand his freedom.[13]
After Nazar’s release in 2006, little was reported on the BLF until it restarted attacks in 2011. In October 2011, the BLF attacked the Balochistan provincial minister Sardar Sanaullah Zehri.[14] In 2012, the BLF killed a journalist, accusing him of not reporting on the BLF objectively.[15] Since 2012, the BLF has continued its attacks on foreign workers, journalists, and Pakistani government affiliates, including a recent attack against 20 foreign workers on April 11, 2015.[16] Following this attack, Nazar publicly claimed that the killed workers were members of the Frontier Works Organization, which is affiliated with the Pakistani military.[17]
In September 2015, a Pakistani military operation reportedly killed Nazar in the Awaran district of Balochistan.[18] Two months later, however, Nazar gave his first interview in five years, documenting how he had survived the encounter. The leader pledged further attacks on a planned Chinese economic corridor, parts of which ran through the resource-rich province of Balochistan. Nazar also called on India to lend diplomatic and financial support to the Baloch movement.[19] When asked if he would support negotiations with the Pakistani government, Nazar reiterated that there would be no negotiations without the independence of Balochistan and without the presence of the UN.[20] In 2017, the Balochistan government detained several of Allah Nazar’s family members , marking another point of tension between the Pakistani government and the BLF.[21]
The BLF has continued to carry out attacks with the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), conducting frequent attacks against Pakistani forces as well as on projects being completed under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $56 billion venture that links southwestern China to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan.[22] In 2018, the group carried out several attacks against Pakistani Security Forces in collaboration with other militant groups.
