Pakistani counterterrorism police in Karachi raided multiple militant hideouts, arresting three suspects and seizing about 2 tons of explosives, officials said in an operation they said thwarted planned attacks in the city.
At a Monday news conference, senior counterterrorism official Zulfiqar Ali Larik said the seized bomb-making materials and detonators were intended for attacks by members of the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist group. Larik said one vehicle loaded with explosives was ready to be used and that the materials had been transported from Balochistan, where a separatist insurgency has raged for more than two decades.
Larik also alleged that the BLA is backed by India, a claim New Delhi denies. Pakistan has often accused neighboring Afghanistan and India of supporting the BLA and the Pakistani Taliban, and attacks in Pakistan have intensified in recent years, the report said.
The article cited a March last year attack in Balochistan described as one of the deadliest: BLA insurgents killed 33 people, mostly soldiers, in an assault on a train carrying hundreds of passengers. Security forces in that incident killed 50 attackers and rescued the remaining passengers, according to the report.
Deputy inspector general of police Ghulam Azfar Mahesar said the raids were conducted jointly by police and intelligence agencies. He said one suspect was arrested first, and information obtained during his interrogation led to the arrest of two others. Mahesar added that additional raids were underway to apprehend remaining members of the network who had fled.
The report said Baloch separatists have waged an insurgency since the early 2000s, seeking greater autonomy and, in some cases, independence from Pakistan, while also demanding a larger share of the province’s natural resources. Authorities said the BLA has increasingly sought to use female attackers, apparently as a way to avoid detection.
It also said that last week, police detained a teenage girl whom authorities said had been radicalized and recruited online by the BLA to carry out a major suicide attack. The report said no criminal charges were filed after officials determined she was a victim rather than a suspect.
In 2022, the article said, a female suicide bomber linked to the BLA killed three Chinese teachers near a university campus in Karachi. Over the years, it said, the BLA has expanded its operations and regularly targeted security forces and civilians, including Chinese nationals working on multibillion-dollar projects tied to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.