Members of Pakistan’s Hazara people have launched a sit-in and public hunger strike after a massacre targeted the Shi’ite minority at a coal-field in a remote area of Balochistan province on Jan. 3. Hundreds have been blocking a major thoroughfare through the provincial capital, Quetta. Interior… Read morePakistan: Hazara massacre sparks hunger strike
Pakistani human rights activist Karima Baloch, 37, was found dead in Toronto, Canada, on Dec. 21. Baloch went missing the previous day. The Toronto Police stated that “officers have determined this to be a non-criminal death and no foul play… Read morePakistani rights activist found slain in Toronto
Gunmen killed at least 14 passengers after forcing them off several passenger vehicles on the coastal highway through Pakistan's restive Balochistan province. Some 20 militants apparently stopped vehicles, checked passangers' identification papers, and shot selected ones to death on the roadside. A statement later issued by a previously unknown militant group said those targeted were determined to be members of the military or security forces. The attack was claimed by the Baloch Raji Aajoi Sangar, or Baloch People's Liberation Coalition, which is believed to have emerged from factional rivalry within the Baloch separatist insurgency. Pakistan has filed a diplomatic complaint with Iran, accusing it of giving the Baloch militants harbor on its territory across the border. (Map via Atheer)
The government of Eswatini, Africa's last absolute monarchy, has launched what Amnesty International calls a "ruthless crackdown" in response to pro-democracy protests, with dozens killed and many others tortured, detained or abducted. Protests broke out last month, following the mysterious death of a 25-year-old law student, Thabani Nkomonye, in May, allegedly at the hands of the police. In late June, these protests grew into daily marches in several cities and towns around the kingdom. While the demonstrations were mostly peaceful, there were instances in which businesses linked to the monarchy were looted and torched. The protests have waned since the wave of repression was unleashed, but the opposition People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) pledges to carry on the struggle. (Photo: Swazi students from University of Pretoria protest at Eswatini embassy. Via Twitter)
A suicide bomber killed at least 130 at a campaign rally in Pakistan's Balochistan province— the deadliest attack in the country since 2014. A local candidate with the Balochistan Awami Party was among the dead. The local franchise of the Islamic State took credit for the attack. Radio Free Europe portrays the BAP as part of the Pakistani military establishment’s plan to undermine Baluch ethno-nationalist groups. Balochistan province is part of the larger region of Baluchistan, homeland of the Baluch people, long divided between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. There are movements for Baluch independence in each of these countries, but they have been unable to unite across the nation-state boundaries. The attack may point to an ISIS strategy to disrupt electoral ethno-nationalist initiatives, and co-opt the Baluch struggle across all three borders, wedding it to Sunni extremism. (Map via Atheer)
Coordinated ISIS attacks on Iran's parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini come amid an Islamic State propaganda push targeting the Islamic Republic's Sunni minority.
A proposed amendment to Pakistan's constitution, making Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto and Balochi "national languages" along with Urdu, is sparking an angry backlash from nationalists.
Baluchi militants attacked Iranian security forces in the country's east, pledging to coordinate their struggle with that of the Ahwazi Arabs in the oil-rich southwest.
A court in Balochistan region issued an arrest warrant for Pakistan's ex-strongman Pervez Musharraf, accused of involvement in the murder of a Baloch nationalist leader.
The local ISIS franchise claimed responsibility for a blast at a Sufi shrine in Pakistan's Balochistan region that killed 60 worshipers and injured more than 100.
ISIS and the Taliban both claimed responsibility for the deadly suicide attack at a police academy in Quetta, while Pakistani authorities blamed the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi network.
Lawyers went on strike and journalists staged demonstrations after scores were slain in a Taliban terror attack on a hospital in Quetta, capital of restive Balochistan province.
