More than 50 were killed and dozens injured in a suicide attack in Pakistan’s Balochistan province Sept. 29 as people gathered to celebrate the festival marking the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, Mawlid an-Nabi. Those targeted in the blast at the town of Mastung were overwhelmingly members of the Baluch ethnicity. The attack is believed to have been carried out by the local ISIS franchise, Islamic State-Khorasan. That same day, at least five were killed in a separate blast at a mosque in Hangu, outside Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. (BBC News, Al Jazeera, AP, NWorld, UAE)
Also that day, Iranian security forces opened fire on Baluchi protesters at the town of Zahedan, Sistan & Baluchestan province, leaving some 25 wounded. The demonstration had been called to commemorate the previous year’s “Bloody Friday” massacre in Zahedan, when some 40 were slain by security forces during a protest held amid the national uprising then sweeping through Iran. (Jurist, Al Jazeera)
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Pakistan arrests suspects in mosque attack
Pakistani authorities revealed in an Oct. 13 press conference that several suspects have been apprehended in connection with the recent killing of a member of an outlawed  militant group inside a mosque. In the attack on the mosque in Daska, Punjab province, gunmen fatally shot Shahid Latif, founder of the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group. (Jurist)
Pakistan: repression as Baloch march arrives in capital
Police in Islamabad on Dec. 21 arrested at least 200 protesters who had walked 1,600 kilometers from the southwestern province of Baluchistan to raise awareness over the forced disappearances of Baloch activists. The woman-led march follows the alleged deathlast month in police custody of 24-year-old Balaach Mola Bakhsh. (TNH)