Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri
Balochistan narrowly escaped a devastating terrorist attack due to timely intelligence and swift action by Pakistan’s security forces, revealing a deeply disturbing trend in the evolving tactics of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). The arrest of Fareed son of Ijaz, alias Zagrain, from the Tejaban area of Kech district led investigators to uncover an advanced and carefully concealed suicide bombing plot involving the grooming of a woman for a martyrdom attack. During interrogation, Fareed confessed that a woman named Khair-un-Nisa, daughter of Abdul Waheed, had been prepared for a suicide mission and relocated to her uncle Javed’s house in Hub to avoid suspicion. Once the information was verified, security forces moved quickly, arresting Khair-un-Nisa along with her facilitator, Hani wife of Abdul Aziz, also a resident of Tejaban. Both women were shifted to a secure location, preventing what could have resulted in mass casualties and widespread trauma.
This was not an isolated episode but part of a dangerous and emerging pattern. Earlier failed attempts in Turbat and disrupted operations at the Kolpur check post had already hinted at the BLA’s intention to deploy women as suicide attackers. The latest arrests confirm that the group has not abandoned this strategy; instead, it has refined and embedded it within its operational planning. What is particularly alarming is the deliberate and systematic nature of this recruitment, where women are not incidental participants but carefully prepared instruments of violence.
Research from international security and academic institutions has long warned about this shift. Studies by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point and other scholars show that militant groups under pressure often adapt by exploiting social blind spots. In deeply traditional societies, women are less likely to be viewed as security threats, making them vulnerable to manipulation and more effective for attackers seeking to bypass surveillance. The Baloch insurgency itself has evolved into a more symbolic and media-driven campaign, and the use of women marks a grim escalation in both intent and impact.
Women drawn into suicide operations are rarely acting out of free ideological conviction. Academic literature, including research published on JSTOR, War on the Rocks, and policy briefs by the European Student Think Tank, consistently shows that women are often recruited through coercion, emotional manipulation, or exploitation of personal trauma. Family and tribal relationships are used to replace scrutiny with trust. Facilitators, sometimes women themselves, normalize extremist ideas under the cover of domestic spaces. Religious language is weaponized to sanctify violence, while psychological pressure isolates recruits from alternative perspectives.
From an Islamic perspective, such exploitation constitutes a grave violation of faith rather than its fulfillment. Islam places women among the most protected and honoured members of society, guaranteeing them dignity, safety, and moral agency. The Holy Qur’an upholds the sanctity of human life in unequivocal terms: “Whoever kills a soul… it is as if he has killed all mankind” (Qur’an 5:32). Suicide, coercion, deception, and the targeting of innocent civilians have no legitimacy in Islamic law. The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) emphasized that “the best among you are those who are best to their women,” anchoring ethical conduct in compassion, consent, and responsibility. Forcing or grooming women into self-destruction under the guise of martyrdom directly contradicts Islamic principles of free will, justice, and accountability. The distortion of religion by militant groups is therefore not only criminal but profoundly un-Islamic, stripping faith of its moral foundations to serve violence and power.
In conservative regions like Balochistan, these tactics are particularly effective. Militants exploit the sanctity of family homes and women’s domestic roles, using relatives’ houses as safe spaces for indoctrination and concealment. Similar patterns have been observed in conflicts involving Boko Haram, ISIS, and Chechen militant networks, where women were quietly moved between trusted households, groomed away from public view, and ultimately pushed toward irreversible acts of violence.
From the perspective of terrorist organizations, the use of female suicide bombers serves multiple objectives. Women are perceived as less suspicious, allowing them to cross checkpoints and enter public spaces more easily. Their involvement generates greater psychological shock and media attention, amplifying fear far beyond the immediate blast. As male fighters are eliminated through counterterrorism operations, women become an alternative pool to sustain violence. At the same time, militant groups falsely portray female participation as ideological commitment or equality in sacrifice, masking the coercion and abuse behind the narrative.
The Council on Foreign Relations has repeatedly observed that militant groups operating in Pakistan evolve under pressure by adopting increasingly extreme and socially disruptive tactics. The BLA’s use of women fits squarely within this trajectory. It reflects not strength, but desperation—an attempt to weaponize society’s most protected members when conventional tactics begin to fail.
Beyond the security dimension, this practice represents a profound human rights violation. Grooming women for suicide attacks is not empowerment; it is exploitation, psychological enslavement, and, in many cases, a form of human trafficking disguised as ideology. Women involved in such plots should not be viewed through simplistic lenses of villainy or martyrdom. Many are victims of manipulation, trapped in cycles of coercion orchestrated by male-dominated militant leaderships that treat them as disposable tools.
The successful disruption of the Hub plot highlights the importance of intelligence-led operations. Had this information not been acted upon swiftly, the consequences could have been catastrophic, not only in terms of lives lost but also in deepening fear and destabilization across the province. Research warns that once female suicide attacks succeed, the tactic tends to spread rapidly, normalizing the exploitation of women within militant strategies. Preventing attacks at the preparatory stage is therefore not merely a tactical success but a strategic imperative.
This narrowly averted disaster should serve as a warning rather than a moment of relief. The BLA has not retreated from its most dangerous ambitions; it is adapting them. By exploiting women, family bonds, and religious sentiment, the group seeks to bypass security systems and fracture society from within. Pakistan’s response must remain multidimensional, combining sustained intelligence work, gender-aware counterterrorism training, community-level vigilance, and firm legal action against recruiters and facilitators. It must also be stated clearly and without ambiguity that Islam does not permit suicide, coercion, or the use of women as instruments of violence; any attempt to justify such acts in religious terms is a distortion rejected by the Qur’an, Sunnah, and the consensus of Muslim scholarship. Above all, society must reclaim the narrative: women are not weapons, and terrorism thrives only where vulnerability is allowed to be exploited.
—The writer is Chairperson, Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights
