MATRIX REPORT
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for the assault on the Karachi Stock Exchange on June 29, saying its Majeed Brigade carried out the suicide mission.
What is Majeed Brigade?
It is a splinter of the BLA, founded by Aslam Achoo Baloch. Aslam was killed by Afghan Taliban in southern Afghanistan early last year, several weeks after terrorists of his group had stormed the Chinese consulate in Karachi in November 2018.
Bashirzeb Baloch currently heads the group.
BLA is led by separatist leader Harbiar Mari, who lives in London, and is one of the many separatist outfits that claim to be fighting for the liberation of Balochistan.They are all part of Baloch Raaji Aajoi Sangar ( Baloch Peoples’ Liberation Front).
Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), Majeed Brigade, Baloch Republican Guards, and the United Baloch Army are other prominent members of BRAS. All of them publicly oppose Pakistan and its partnership with China through CPEC.
Government of Pakistan proscribed the BRAS on 23rd August 2019 under section 11-B of its Anti Terrorism Act.
BRAS or some of its members are the common denominators in attacks on the PC Hotel in Gwadar in May 2019, the Chinese Consulate in November 2018 and the Karachi Stock Exchange.
The anti-CPEC pattern is very obvious in their public statements, not different from the Indian views on CPEC.
These groups justify these attacks in the name of struggle for a free Balochistan. But in all probability, this posturing masks the proxy war that Pakistan and China face today.
BRAS and its members seem to be the critical links in this proxy war – clearly aimed at creating political instability and economic uncertainty. Is it a deflection from the multiple embarrassments that the Indian government has been facing at home – in Kashmir and in eastern Laddakh at the hands of the Chinese? Or is it New Delhi’s frustration over increasingly becoming irrelevant in Afghanistan’s peace process?
