Who are the Pakistani Baloch separatist militants behind train hijacking

ISLAMABAD - A separatist militant group, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA),said it had taken hostages during an attack on a train carrying hundreds of people, including paramilitary troops, in south-western Pakistan on March 11, and threatened to kill them.

The BLA is the strongest of a number of insurgent groups long operating in the area bordering Afghanistan and Iran, a mineral-rich region that is home to Beijing’s investment in the Gwadar deep water port and other projects.

In what was previously a low-level insurgency, the militants have stepped up their activities in recent months, using new tactics to inflict high death and injury tolls and target Pakistan’s military.

Here are facts about the group, which has also targeted Chinese interests.

What are the BLA’s goals?

The BLA seeks independence for Balochistan, a province located in Pakistan’s south-west and bordering Afghanistan to the north and Iran to the west.

It is the biggest of several ethnic insurgent groups that have battled the federal government for decades, saying it unfairly exploits Balochistan’s rich gas and mineral resources.

The insurgents have been fighting to lay a claim to local resources, which they say belong to their people.

Balochistan’s mountainous border region serves as a safe haven and training ground for the Baloch insurgents and Islamist militants.

How has it become more lethal?

The BLA shocked the country’s security establishment when it stormed army and navy bases in 2022.

It has deployed women suicide bombers, including in an attack on Chinese nationals in a university in Karachi and a bombing in south-west Balochistan.

An umbrella group of several Baloch ethnic groups said last week that it had convened all factions in a bid to unite them under a unified military structure.

A dormant BLA splinter group called BLA (Azad) became active in recent