On April 26, 2022, a female suicide bomber of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of the many non-jihadi terror organizations fighting for the independence of Baluchistan province from Pakistan, carried out an attack killing three Chinese academics inside the Karachi University campus. The BLA, which claimed the April 26 attack, identified the female suicide bomber as Shari Baloch aka Bramsh.
This might be one of the few suicide bombings by a Baluchi secessionist groups, which are secular and democratic in attitude, and certainly the first suicide bombing by a woman fidayee (i.e., martyrdom-seeking) bomber. In Baluchistan, two types of terror groups are active: secular Baluchi rebel groups and jihadi organizations like the Islamic State’s (ISIS) Khurasan branch and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (the Movement of Pakistani Taliban, TTP).
The Pakistan Army is accused of human rights violations in Baluchistan
In a recent article published a few weeks before the April 26 attack, noted Pakistani columnist Akbar Jan Marwat examined the role of non-jihadi terror groups in Baluchistan. In the article, titled “Focusing On Latest Trends In Baloch Insurgency,” Marwat also noted that the TTP and the Baluchi rebel groups might have joined hands in recent months.