When terrorists kill a judge, they are not settling scores with an individual. They are sending a message to every courtroom where the writ of the state is upheld. That is what makes the assassination of District and Sessions Judge Abdul Hakeem Kakar in Mastung different from an ordinary act of terrorism.

The attack came after a series of killings across Balochistan. Five labourers were murdered in Mashkail. Three passengers lost their lives when gunmen opened fire on a bus in Khad Kocha. Before that, a woman was killed after terrorists attacked a civilian vehicle. Different places, different victims, but the same purpose: to spread fear and to convince people that no one is beyond the reach of violence.

A judge is not an ordinary public official. Governments come and go, politicians win and lose elections, but courts remain the place where the authority of the state is expressed through law. When a judge is assassinated, the attack is directed at that authority as much as at the individual.

The political backdrop also deserves attention. After Dr Mahrang Baloch was convicted by an Anti-Terrorism Court in Quetta, senior leaders of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) openly questioned the credibility of the judiciary, arguing that judges were serving the interests of the state rather than the cause of justice. Those remarks did not remain confined to political debate. They deepened an already tense atmosphere surrounding the courts.

Only weeks later, Judge Abdul Hakeem Kakar was........

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