KEY POINTS
- Pakistan’s intelligence agencies arrested a BUITEMS lecturer for links with the BLA terror group.
- Dr Usman Qazi confesses to facilitating the November 2024 Quetta railway station bombing that killed at least 25 people.
- The BLA had prepared 32 suicide bombers and four VBIEDs to target several cities on Pakistan’s Independence Day.
- The US recently designated the BLA a Foreign Terrorist Organisation.
QUETTA, Pakistan: Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have foiled one of the “deadliest terrorist attacks in the country’s recent history” after arresting a university lecturer accused of working with the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
The Balochistan Liberation Army is a proscribed terrorist group based in the Balochistan province of the country. The terrorist group perpetrates attacks in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. The group frequently targets the Pakistan Armed Forces, civilians, and foreign nationals.
According to Pakistani authorities, the banned BLA is linked to India’s intelligence agency RAW and receives funding, planning, and instructions from Indian officials to carry out terror attacks in Pakistan.
According to security sources, a suicide bomber was arrested in Quetta on August 11. Information obtained during interrogation led to the arrest of Dr Usman Qazi, a lecturer at the Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS).
During the investigation, it was revealed that Dr Usman was working with the BLA’s Majeed Brigade to plan multiple attacks on Pakistan’s Independence Day, August 14, security sources said.
Security sources said that during interrogation, Dr Usman confessed to facilitating the November 9, 2024, Quetta railway station bombing, in which at least 25 people were killed. The BLA had claimed responsibility for the Quetta railway station attack.
The arrested accused also admitted to preparing dozens of bombers for planned attacks on 14 August that, according to investigators, could have caused mass casualties.
By August 12, intelligence officials had uncovered the full scale of the plot, sources said. Security agencies reported that the BLA had prepared 32 suicide bombers and four vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) to strike Quetta and other cities during Independence Day celebrations.
The plan, sources said, was intended to turn “a day of national pride into a day of mourning.”
Dr Usman also provided shelter and medical care to injured militants in the past, security sources said. In April and May 2024, he had harboured a wounded BLA terrorist, identified as Bohair, and arranged his treatment through an undisclosed doctor, sources revealed.
Security sources also accused him of personally handing suicide vests to young recruits while disguised as a teacher.
The intelligence agencies’ swift and coordinated action prevented the attacks and saved several lives, sources said. The suspects are now in custody and further investigations are under way, security sources added.
The BLA has waged an insurgency in Balochistan for years. Pakistan has long claimed that the group is acting as a proxy for India.
In May this year, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif reiterated this view, stating that Islamabad would present “complete evidence” of New Delhi’s involvement in attacks, including one on a school bus in Khuzdar district.
“The relation between BLA and India is well known, as their leadership is in New Delhi. BLA is fighting as an Indian proxy,” the Defence Minister said in a Geo News Programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’ in May this year.
Earlier this month, the United States formally designated the BLA a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO). The announcement, made by the Department of State on 11 August, builds on the group’s earlier designation in 2019 as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the decision “demonstrates the Trump Administration’s commitment to countering terrorism,” adding that such measures are “an effective way to curtail support for terrorist activities.”
The BLA has been blamed for a series of high-profile attacks in Pakistan in recent years. In March this year, the group claimed responsibility for an assault on a train travelling from Quetta to Peshawar in which dozens of passengers and soldiers were killed.
