Balochistan: Pakistan Navy officials killed in Gwadar ambush, BLA accepts attack

QUETTA: The Pakistan Navy’s special unit, QRF (Quick Reaction Force), was ambushed at Ganz Road in the Panwan Jiwani area of Gwadar city in Balochistan.  At least four Navy personnel were killed and two other seriously wounded.

Azad Baloch, the spokesman of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) in a statement to the media, accepted the responsibility of the attack on Pakistan Navy officials in Gwadar Balochistan on Saturday.

“The Baloch Liberation Army Sarmachaars (Freedom Fighters) targeted the Navy personnel on their way from Jiwani to Ganz Naval Base,” BLA spokesperson Azad Baloch said adding that, “We want to send a message to the world that we can target Pakistani forces anywhere, anytime.”

The statement of BLA further elaborated that Pakistan’s navy in collaboration with China is at the forefront of colonising the coasts of Balochistan, including Gwadar, which not only seeks to bring about large-scale demographic change by evicting the Baloch people but they are building a naval base on the Baloch coast.

“Pakistan is an occupier and no occupying force will develop the subjugated nation, for thousands of years, the Baloch fishermen community in Makuran sea shores remained deprived of necessities and now the Baloch fisherman cannot even fish freely in their ancestral Seas.  

Azad Baloch further said that a few weeks ago the Pakistan Navy conducted a six-day international military exercise in the seas of Balochistan and claimed that Pakistan can protect the interests of other nations via Balochistan’s geostrategic location.

“The world powers and all the regional nations have to understand that Pakistani forces including navy are cannot protect themselves from the attacks of Baloch fighters. How can they safeguard the interest of others?

“The Pakistani state is using various tactics to create compelling conditions and difficulties for the common indigenous people living on CPEC routes and in Gwadar so that the Baloch population of those areas can be forced to migrate.”  

The BLA said that all such plans were state conspiracies to change the proportion of the population of Balochistan. We (Baloch) will thwart such designs.

The statement of BLA added, “Therefore, all the CPEC projects are on our target and international investors should refrain from investing in any such project.”

Azad Baloch reiterated that such attacks will continue until the establishment of an independent and sovereign Baloch state.