Balochistan: Conflicting reports about killing of Jaish-al-Adl leader

QUETTA: Iran’s state media has reported that Iranian forces killed a top leader of ‘Jaish-al-Adl’ on Thursday 22 February.

According to details, Iran claimed to have killed the Jaish’s leader Ismael Shahbakhsh inside Pakistan-occupied Balochistan but Pakistan denies the attack.

 The Baloch Activists Campaign, a news sites that regularly report about the Balochistan conflict, however, reported that at least five Iranian IRGC members were killed in retaliation when they attacked Ismael ShahBaksh, an anti-Iranian Baloch citizen who is reportedly one of the important leaders of the Jaish-al-Adl.

“Haji Shahbakhsh remained unhurt while one of his companions was wounded in the attack,” BAC reported.  

There has been no official confirmation or denial from the Jaish-al-Adl about the attack and killing of its leader.

This is the second attack that Iran carried out inside Pakistan-Occupied Balochistan in recent months, the first attack took place on 17 January when Iran claimed to have targeted camps of the Jaish. However, ground reports contradicted Iran’s claims and said unarmed residents were targeted and women and children were among the dead.

A day later, on 18 January, Pakistan carried out air strikes in Iranian Occupied Balochistan which killed several Baloch people including women and children.

To the world, it seemed that Iran and Pakistan have carried out attacks against each other but the target of both states were the Baloch political activists residing on both sides of the artificial border.

Baloch political analysts and pro-freedom parties described the attacks as a pre-planned collusion between Iran and Pakistan against the Baloch struggle for freedom.