Less than two months after the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) rattled Pakistan by hijacking the Jaffar Express, reports have now emerged that the rebels have now taken control of Mangocher city in Balochistan.
The Baloch rebel outfit has reportedly captured government offices and has taken military personnel hostage. The fresh wave of violence in the restive province has sparked worries of a full-blown civil war in cash-strapped Pakistan.
This comes after the BLA killed Muhammad Nawaz, an agent of Pakistan's spy agency ISI, in the Pasni region on April 28. Nawaz was reportedly working undercover with the state-backed death squad agents. The group also targeted army and police vehicles and blocked the national highway.
Mangocher city in Kalat district of Balochistan is a little over a 100 km from Quetta, the provincial capital. Mangocher saw violence in 2022 when unidentified individuals opened fire on civilians, claiming the life a person while another was wounded. BLA was believed to be behind the attack, though there waqs no official confirmation.
The latest attack in Balochistan comes amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan over Islamabad's alleged involvement in the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22. A total of 26 people were killed in the attack by terrorists belonging to The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.
