In an effort to boost the morale of its cadres, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) issued a statement detailing a massive, coordinated suicide attack last week on the fortified compound of ISIS-K commander Shafiq Mengal in the Pakistani city of Khuzdar, claiming to have killed 34 operatives, including terrorists from Pakistan. Lashkar-e-Taiba Apart from islamic state.In a confident statement, the insurgent group claimed responsibility for the operation, which involved vehicle-borne explosives and a team of suicide bombers, and saw it as the official start of a wider offensive dubbed Operation Murgh-Gadaran.The BLA revealed in a statement that the attack took place during a gathering at the compound that included Pakistani intelligence officials, operatives from international militant networks such as the Islamic State and Lashkar-e-Taiba, and former Afghan soldiers who were reportedly meeting to coordinate efforts to counter the Baloch political movement. This once again exposed the close relationship between Pakistan’s ISI and ISIS factions, which were used to suppress the freedom struggle in Balochistan.The surviving Mongal, who falsely accused India of having a hand in the incident, said 17 of his colleagues were eating when they were killed in the blast. He said the attackers later engaged in armed clashes with people inside the compound. The attack was carried out by the Majeed Brigade, the BLA’s specialized self-sacrifice wing. The operation was allegedly launched after weeks of intense surveillance of a high-level meeting by BLA intelligence unit Zirab.The BLA claims that the 34 people killed in the crossfire were key members of the Mengal private network, which they accuse of being directly involved in targeted killings, abductions and enforced disappearances of Baloch political activists and students.
