QUETTA: Pakistani security forces have arrested the founder and leader of an umbrella group for insurgents in the country’s restive southwest, the military said on Friday.
Gulzar Imam, also known as Shambay, is one of the main leaders of the Baloch separatist insurgency and was arrested as a “high-value target” in an intelligence operation, the military’s media wing said in a statement.
“He has been a hardcore militant as well as founder and leader of the banned outfit Baloch National Army…BNA has been responsible for dozens of violent terrorist attacks in Pakistan including attacks on law enforcement agency installations,” the military said, adding that his visits to India and Afghanistan are on record, and his suspected links with hostile intelligence agencies were being investigated.
“The arrest of Gulzar Imam Shambay is a serious blow to the BNA as well as other militant groups, which have been attempting to destabilize the hard-earned peace in Balochistan.”
An umbrella group for Baloch separatists, the BNA emerged last year after the merger of Imam’s faction of the Baloch Republican Army and United Baloch Army, which are part of the insurgent movement in Balochistan.
Bordering Afghanistan and Iran, the province is Pakistan’s largest in terms of land area and most underdeveloped in terms of almost all social indicators.
For the past two decades, it has been marred by an insurgency fueled by anger that its abundant reserves of natural resources are not relieving citizens from crushing poverty.
Insurgents are also opposed to, and attack, projects linked to China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative in the resource-rich province. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor infrastructure project has inflamed grievances, with claims the vast influx of investment does not benefit locals.
Balochistan Home Minister Meer Zia Langove told Arab News the arrest of the BNA chief was a major blow not only to the BNA but also to other militant groups in the region, as “the government and security forces will continue action until we sweep out the last terrorist from this soil.”
Although Imam is a senior insurgent commander, experts are not convinced that his arrest will have a significant impact.
“It was a success for the government and security forces because they could get information about the BNA’s activities, other leaders and group members and also bust out their domestic and international linkages,” Shahzada Zulfiqar, a journalist and an expert in the Balochistan insurgency, told Arab News.
“But Imam was not alone. There were still many active commanders fighting on the ground.”
The strength of the Baloch separatist movement is not in its individual leaders but the Baloch youth who are driving it, according to Abdul Basit, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore.
“The insurgency in Balochistan is not dependent on one single commander, because the center of gravity of Baloch insurgency lies on the ethnic grievances,” he told Arab News, adding that the arrest was nevertheless a victory for the Pakistani government as Imam has been considered one of the top three separatist commanders who have been leading the fight against the state.