Pakistan Presents Captured Terrorist Commander to Media
Counterterrorism experts are divided as to whether the arrest of Baloch separatist Gulzar Imam will significantly reduce terrorism in the region
[Islamabad] Pakistan presented an apprehended terrorist commander to the media on Tuesday. At the press conference, captured Baloch Nationalist Army (BNA) Commander Gulzar Imam, also known as Shambay, urged the Baloch people to give up their armed rebellion.
Imam has been accused of developing links with hostile spy agencies and was involved in dozens of violent attacks in Pakistan. The Pakistan Armed Forces published a press release last month confirming Imam’s arrest, which is believed to have taken place in September 2022. The press release described him as “a hardcore militant” and “a staunch believer in an independent Balochistan.”
The Baloch people are an ethnic group from South and Southwest Asia. About half of the world’s 10 million Baloch people live in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan, which is the country’s largest province by area. Baloch ethnonationalist groups have been fighting since at least 2004 to establish a homeland for the Baloch people in a territory currently located across Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan.
Tuesday’s press conference took place in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. Journalists were forbidden from bringing cell phones or cameras to the event.
Armed struggle will not solve problems. The loss is only happening to the Baloch nation.
According to a press release from the Pakistan Armed Forces’ media wing, Imam expressed regret for his involvement in terrorism and apologized to families who had lost loved ones. He urged the Baloch people to give up the rebellion. “Armed struggle will not solve problems,” he was quoted as saying. “The loss is only happening to the Baloch nation.”
Balochistan has been a site of conflict for several decades.
The province is rich in natural gas—the biggest contributor to the local economy—in addition to oil, copper, and gold. It borders the Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces as well as Afghanistan and Iran.
Balochistan is also at the center of the $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, part of Beijing’s massive Belt and Road Initiative to promote economic cooperation and connectivity across Asia, Europe, and Africa through infrastructure development and investments in over 60 countries.
A central aspect of the CPEC project in Balochistan is the development of a deep-water port at Gwadar, which will be linked to China’s Xinjiang Province. Other CPEC programs aim to develop the region’s energy infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, and industry.
Baloch nationalists initially wanted a share of the provincial resources, but have since been fighting to achieve independence.
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Before founding the BNA, Imam served as deputy to Brahamdagh Bugti, who commanded the Baloch Republican Army, another separatist group.
Throughout the 2010s, various Baloch nationalist groups were created or merged with one another, including the Baloch Raaji Ajoi Sangar (BRAS), which was formed in 2018 as a coalition of the Baloch Liberation Army, the Balochistan Liberation Front, and the Baloch Republican Guard. During this period, leadership over the groups also shifted from tribal elders to commoners.
In addition to commanding the BNA, Imam was also the operational head of BRAS.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Islamabad-based senior counter-intelligence official described Imam as “a highly trained, cunning operative and a shrewd terrorist commander” who “used 1,400 fake documents and 66 different organizations in 11 countries to hide his identity.” The official noted that a neighboring country, which he declined to name, provided safe haven to Imam. He did reveal that Imam visited India in 2017 using fake documents.
After identifying Imam through collaborative efforts with 11 foreign spy agencies over the course of more than a year, Pakistan carried out Imam’s arrest in only 12 hours.
Experts are divided as to the effect that Imam’s arrest will have on terrorist organizations in the region and on Pakistan-US relations.
Kamal Alam, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, said that the US relies on the Pakistan Armed Forces as a partner in counterterrorism, despite some mistrust between Pakistani and US organizations. More recently, China has taken on a bigger role in the region, especially while “the US is distracted with Ukraine and Taiwan,” Alam told The Media Line.
The arrest of a high-profile terrorist commander also sends a strong message to other extremist groups and potential terrorists operating in the region. This can act as a deterrent and dissuade others from engaging in extremist activities, thereby contributing to the overall security and stability of the region.
Retired Brig. Gen. Muhammad Zeeshan, who serves as the director general of the Center for Peace, Security and Development Studies in Islamabad, described Imam as “a linchpin of multiple rings of terrorists, facilitators, funding sources, and inimical agencies.” He said that Imam’s arrest jeopardized those organizations’ operations and provided Pakistan’s counterterrorism agency with valuable information.
The arrest “also affords Pakistan an opportunity to convince regional players like Iran, the UAE, and Afghanistan about the menaces of organized terrorism,” Zeeshan told The Media Line. Pakistan can use this messaging to make the case for a regionally coordinated counterterrorism effort, he explained.
“The arrest of a high-profile terrorist commander also sends a strong message to other extremist groups and potential terrorists operating in the region,” Zeeshan said. “This can act as a deterrent and dissuade others from engaging in extremist activities, thereby contributing to the overall security and stability of the region.”
Alongside the potential for deterrence, Zeeshan said that the arrest may also stir up regional tensions. Imam’s visit to India in 2017 makes clear that “India has been supporting separatists in Baluchistan,” Zeeshan said.
Senator Prince Ahmed Omar Ahmadzai, who represents Balochistan, told The Media Line that Imam’s arrest represents “a major setback for terrorist organizations.”
He said that most people involved in the armed struggle for Baloch independence are young people being taken advantage of by terrorist groups. “Baloch youths are facing unemployment, poverty, discrimination, and other issues,” Ahmadzai said. He said that the Pakistani government ought to develop a comprehensive strategy to engage Baloch youth in order to keep them from getting involved in terrorism.
Ahmadzai noted that the Balochistan Assembly passed a resolution to start peace talks with Baloch rebels. He said that Imam ought to be given amnesty as part of a strategy to “encourage other militants to lay down their arms and join the mainstream.”
New York-based counterterrorism expert Irina Tsukerman also described a connection between Baloch-separatist terrorism and the harsh conditions experienced by many Baloch people.
“Pakistan’s fundamental issue is not Baloch secessionism or the Taliban or anyone else, but the conditions that cause openness to violence: sectarian and tribal issues, perceived disenfranchisement, exclusion, and discrimination by the state,” she said. She also mentioned the lack of economic opportunities as a factor leading to increased involvement in terrorism.
Tsukerman described a way of thinking common to American counterterrorism that holds that the “elimination of a leader of a non-state actor necessarily demoralizes and disrupts the movement and weakens it.” But given the many factors involved in terrorism, the strategy of arresting leaders like Imam may not have the desired effect, Tsukerman said.
She predicted that “new front-runners will keep rising and new groups will form and continue creating problems” until the factors that make violence appealing are addressed.
“While American security agency leaders are likely to celebrate this arrest as a major victory, the more serious scholars of extremism will be wary of giving it too much importance and instead will focus on broader sociopolitical issues on the ground and the more general trajectory of social dynamics in the region,” she said.
