BLUF claims responsibility for killing DSP, entices Balochs to quit state apparatus

QUETTA: The Baloch Liberation United Front (BLUF) has accepted responsibility for the killing of a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and two other members of the Balochistan Constabulary (BC) in a firing incident in the provincial capital, Quetta, on Saturday after ambushing their vehicle.

According to Online News agency, Shahaq Baloch, a spokesman for the underground Baloch resistance organisation, called from an unknown location via satellite phone and accepted responsibility for the incident and warned all the Balochs to give up their affiliation with the state-controlled institutions of Pakistan or face ‘dire consequences’.

BLUF is a relatively new armed group in Balochistan but it has gained overwhelming attention due to its unanticipated activities. The organization rose to prominence earlier this year in February when it kidnapped John Solecki, an American head of the Balochistan sub-office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in an effort to coax the Balochistan government to release the Baloch political activists held in the government custody. The BLUF tremendously upset the Balochistan government later in the year by killing the provincial education minister Shafiq Ahmed by saying that the murder of the non-Baloch minister had been carried out to avenge the killing of three Baloch leaders in Turbat in April this year allegedly by the personnel of the Frontier Corps (FC).

The BLUF spokesman said that the killing of the DSP and two other policemen was intended to send a clear message to all Balochs serving in the police to give up their jobs in the police department.

“We do not want the Balochs to serve in Pakistan’s police. Further attacks will be carried out in the future against those who defy the warning and continue to serve for the Pakistani forces,” said the spokesman,” our operations will continue till the complete independence of Balochistan.”