The Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) recently made remarks on the Baloch conflict that, though intended to project unity, raise troubling questions about the state’s approach to this long-festering crisis. A message framed as positive risks turning negative if it fails to fully recognise the realities to which it is applied.

The Baloch insurgency is not merely a law-and-order issue, nor can it be resolved through rhetorical invocations of religious identity or the selective glorification of a few successful individuals of Baloch origin. When weighed against the ground realities of Balochistan, such narratives are not only inadequate but may even prove counterproductive.

This year alone, Baloch separatist groups have killed nearly 17 individuals accused of working as agents of the Pakistan Army, while an almost equal number were executed for alleged links to the so-called “Death Squad”—a militia widely believed by separatists to have been created by the state to counter them. At the same time, the Death Squad itself has been implicated in the killing of nine people, along with multiple cases of abduction. This cycle of retaliatory violence between insurgents, pro-state groups, and shadowy militias has created a bleak environment in which ordinary citizens are trapped in a relentless and deadly crossfire.

In this context, the DG ISPR’s emphasis on “local support” for military operations is deeply problematic. When the military publicly acknowledges reliance on local informants, those individuals and communities are immediately placed on the hit list of insurgents. The promise of protection becomes meaningless when the state cannot shield these civilians from retaliatory violence. Such statements may end up providing........

© The Friday Times