In a significant intensification of the separatist conflict gripping Pakistan’s southwestern province, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has highlighted the role of two young female suicide attackers in a sweeping 24-hour operation that targeted government offices, banks, and security facilities across multiple districts.
According to a report, the BLA’s media arm, Hakkal, publicly released photographs and video footage of the women—Asifa Mengal, 23, and Hawa Baloch, 24—along with details of their involvement in “Operation Herof 2.0.” The coordinated assaults struck locations including Kalat, Gwadar, Mastung, Noshki, Kharan, Turbat, and Pasni over the weekend, focusing on symbols of Pakistani state authority such as Frontier Corps headquarters, police stations, and intelligence installations.
Asifa Mengal, born in 2002 in Noshki, reportedly joined the BLA’s elite Majeed Brigade suicide unit on her 21st birthday in 2023. The group stated she carried out a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) attack on the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters in her hometown on January 31, 2026.
Hawa Baloch, described as an aspiring writer from Kech district, was driven by the 2021 killing of her father, Nabi Baksh Baloch—a BLA member—in Sistan, Iran. She subsequently enlisted in the Majeed Brigade.
The operation involved approximately a dozen fidayeens, including older participants such as 60-year-old Hatam Naz Sumalani and 70-year-old Nako Fazal Baloch, who also conducted suicide bombings. Tactics ranged from grenade assaults on police facilities and highway blockades to impede military reinforcements, to direct strikes on administrative and security sites.
Casualty figures remain contested. The BLA asserted that more than 100 Pakistani personnel were killed, while Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti reported that security forces neutralized over 145 insurgents in response. Sporadic violence continued into Monday, though at a diminished level.
The BLA’s emphasis on the female attackers’ profiles and their shift from civilian lives to frontline roles underscores the evolving dynamics and growing desperation in the long-running Baloch insurgency.
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