Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti on Monday said security forces, including the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), had thwarted a major terrorist plan for Independence Day, adding a university lecturer had “confessed” to facilitating terrorist operations.
“On Aug. 14, the suicide bombers had planned to target innocent citizens who were celebrating Independence Day,” he told a press conference in Quetta. Praising law enforcement agencies for their timely action, he urged parents to monitor their children and ensure they were not misled by propaganda. He alleged that the people involved in the attack on the Quetta Railway Station in November 2024 were also behind the Aug. 14 attempt.
According to Bugti, investigations are ongoing. While stressing that he disagreed with collective punishment, he maintained that anyone who targeted “innocent children and citizens” would be dealt with harshly. He also pointed to locals not informing authorities when their relatives joined militant groups, warning this could not continue.
During his media interaction, the chief minister alleged a Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences lecturer had confessed to using the Telegram application for terrorist activities. He alleged the lecturer had confessed to receiving targets, facilitating terrorist operations, and betraying the state.
Summarizing the lecturer’s biodata, Bugti said he held a Ph.D. in Pakistan Studies and had been teaching the subject to university students. He said the suspect’s wife was also a teacher, while his mother was a pensioner. “Where is the deprivation here?” he questioned, criticizing the exploitation of narratives of marginalization to justify terrorism. He alleged that such elements were exploiting women to prepare them for suicide attacks.
Confession
In a video statement played by Bugti, the lecturer said he was introduced to three individuals belonging to an “organization” in 2020, adding security forces killed two of them. He said two men, Dr. Habetan and Feh Khaliq, had convinced him to join a militant group and guided him to meet Basheerzai.
All introductions, he said, were conducted through the Telegram messaging app. On the instructions of Habetan and Khaliq, he said, he had assisted the group by providing shelter to a militant injured in a clash in Kalat. He had subsequently handed the man to another individual and later found that the militant had died the next day in a railway suicide bombing.
In another recounting, he said he had sheltered for 7-8 days a man who was planning to stage an attack on Aug. 14. The lecturer also confessed he had purchased a pistol that was used to target security forces and government employees.
In his video statement, the lecturer expressed regret over his actions, admitting they were unlawful and amounted to a betrayal of the state.
Legal issues
Stressing authorities were withholding information to avoid sabotaging the ongoing investigation, Bugti lamented that such elements were misusing the issue of missing persons as a propaganda tool against the state. “There is no forced disappearance from our side,” he claimed, while pointing to the suspect’s mother still receiving a pension, indicating she was a government employee. He also noted that the suspect’s brother was employed in the Reko Diq project, emphasizing there was no deprivation.
According to Bugti, the BLA’s Majeed Brigade comprises “three to four tiers,” with the lowest containing uneducated people, the mid-tier women for targeted killings, and the topmost utilizing educated individuals like the lecturer. “This is the first time security forces have accomplished such a big success, of arresting a leader of Majeed Brigade’s ‘sophisticated’ tier,” he said.
He noted that the accused lecturer’s neighbors had resisted the CTD’s attempts to arrest him. “I want to tell the people of Balochistan: we filed an FIR against all of them, every one of them is arrested,” he said, urging people against facilitating any militant as they would then also be treated as terrorists.
“We have investigated 2,000 to 2,500 people, especially government employees. Some were innocent and their names were from the Fourth Schedule, some were sent explanation letters, some were suspended, some were terminated,” he said. “We will not spare. We’ll fight this war, in warfare and lawfare too,” he added.
“Those who wish to talk to us will find our doors open,” he said and called on all political parties to unite against terrorism and acknowledge the state’s sacrifices in countering it.