A decisive chapter in Pakistan’s war against insurgency has begun as the brave people of Dera Bugti, backed by elite security forces and cutting-edge technology, has launched a full-scale resistance against the India-sponsored Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), declared by the state as “Fitna-e-Hindustan”.
In a rare show of unity, a grand tribal jirga declared open resistance against the BLA. Local tribal militias joined hands with Pakistan’s Special Services in coordinated operations that led to the death of a senior BLA commander, Gehram alias Sulhan, along with several of his fighters.
Drone surveillance, particularly China-supplied CH-6 UAVs using thermal tracking, helped dismantle BLA hideouts in remote mountain caves, leaving militants with no escape route. The very tactics BLA once used, hybrid warfare, propaganda, and cross-border sanctuaries, are now turning against them.
Tech, Tribes, and Borders Tighten the Noose
Following last month’s trilateral talks in Beijing, China applied diplomatic pressure on Kabul to deny Afghan soil to BLA operatives. The Taliban regime obliged, distancing itself from cross-border attacks, especially after China hinted that future investments would hinge on security assurances.
Meanwhile, at the Iran-Pakistan border, joint patrols have sealed key supply routes, forcing BLA remnants into isolation, hunger, and fear.
Recovered evidence, Russian-made Kornet-E launchers and Indian satellite phones, point directly to New Delhi’s continued support. But despite foreign backing, BLA appears to be collapsing under the weight of local defiance and international isolation.
From Guerrilla Romance to Local Rejection
In Dera Bugti, the BLA’s so-called resistance finds no sympathy. Tribal elders now confront young recruits with the piercing question: “Whose war are you really fighting?” This moral reckoning, coupled with targeted military strategy and communications blackouts, has turned BLA’s traditional propaganda war into an imploding echo chamber.
Pakistan’s approach is no longer reactive. From tribal integration and development projects to real-time surveillance and regional diplomacy, a 360-degree counter-hybrid warfare model is in motion.
The Fall of Fitna: A Regional Shift
The BLA, once a symbol of separatist defiance, is now cornered by a united front spanning from Islamabad to Tehran and Kabul. The insurgent group’s Marxist-rhetoric, tribal exploitation, and proxy warfare have met their match in a region realigning through economic corridors, technological alliances, and political resolve.
As gunfire echoes in the hills of Dera Bugti, the battle cries are no longer for rebellion, but for reclamation, of land, peace, and sovereignty.
If this momentum holds, by autumn, the BLA may exist only in academic footnotes, a failed insurgency extinguished by a convergence of tribal resistance, regional diplomacy, and unmanned precision.
