Quetta, April 16 (IANS) Armed men allegedly linked to Pakistani forces are impersonating as Baloch pro-independence fighters and harassing people in parts of Kharan district in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, local residents have claimed.
According to the residents, the said men identified themselves as “sarmachars”, a term commonly used for Baloch armed fighters, while travelling through different parts of the district and threatening people, The Balochistan Post reported.
They alleged that the armed men went inside a hospital in Killi Sarawan, forced employees to stop working, shut down the facility and asked them not to reopen it.
They further mentioned that members of the group, while posing as Baloch fighters, threatened employees at a polio transit point in South City on Naurozabad Road, stopped buses and tried to harass passengers and drivers.
Residents alleged that the group was a local “death squad” operating under the patronage of Pakistani forces and said the same armed men were accompanying military personnel during patrols in the area, The Balochistan Post reported.
They further mentioned that Pakistani forces were attacked during an operation carried out by Baloch armed fighters in the same area on Monday, after which deployment of military personnel was increased in Kharan.
Residents alleged that the alleged actions seemed intended to intimidate civilians and incite them against Baloch pro-independence armed groups.
Earlier this week, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed that three Pakistani naval personnel were killed in what it described as its first maritime operation in the Jiwani area of Gwadar district in Balochistan.
As it announced the formation of a naval wing, the BLA released video footage showing four masked fighters moving towards the sea before boarding a speedboat.
They were then shown at sea, moving towards a vessel identified as a Pakistan Coast Guard boat and opening indiscriminate gunfire.
“As long as even one son of the Baloch remains on this land, we will not allow you to remain on this sea or this land. We are ready today, we were ready yesterday, and we will remain ready in the future… You will be struck everywhere,” said the fighters before the attack.
According to a statement by BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch, the group has established its formal naval wing, the Hammal Maritime Defence Force (HMDF), for the “protection of the Baloch seas”.
Commencing its first operational activity, he said, this new subsidiary force of the BLA targetted a patrolling boat of the Pakistani Navy in an armed attack on the morning of April 12 at ‘Mil Tiyab’ in the Jiwani area of Gwadar.
As a result of intense firing by the BLA fighters, Jeeyand said, all three “occupying navy personnel on board”, including Naik Afzal, Sepoy Jameel, and Sepoy Umar, were killed on the spot.
He added that following the operation, the BLA fighters successfully reached their secure hideouts.
The BLA asserted that the “Baloch national independence movement” has now entered a stage extending beyond land operations to maritime domains, which it said, “will also prove to be an inevitable graveyard for the enemy.”
“The occupying Pakistan and its imperialist partners have been illegally auctioning the Baloch seas for years, where the economic massacre of our fishermen continues, and the coasts have been converted into military cantonments. The formation of the Hammal Maritime Defence Force is the beginning of our national navy, which will remain ready at all times to stop the maritime plunder of Baloch resources, paralyse the enemy’s naval movements, and defend the occupied coasts,” read the statement by the BLA.
Warning the Pakistani forces that its military scope is no longer limited only to the mountains and cities, the BLA said, “We have now achieved the full capability to target the enemy in the deep seas, including its naval installations and assets. Our war will continue with full intensity until the complete withdrawal of the enemy and the restoration of a free and sovereign Baloch state.”
–IANS
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