- Government raises issue of online recruitment with social media companies.
- Six women participated in the great wave of attacks in January: those responsible.
- Records show an increase in the number of female suicide bombers since 2022.
ISLAMABAD: Dressed in military fatigues with rifles on their shoulders, Yasma Baloch and her husband Waseem pose smiling for a photo released by Pakistani insurgents after their latest mission: carrying out suicide bombings.
It is among half a dozen photos and biographies that Reuters could not immediately be verified, but which analysts believe is part of a propaganda effort by Balochistan rebels.
The growing number of women is helping to boost recruitment, said Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry.
“It gives them popularity and reach, and it makes their community feel like the fight has reached their home,” Talal said. Reuters.
Pakistan has addressed the issue of insurgent recruitment online on many social media platforms, he added.
Three suicide bombers were among six women who took part in the group’s largest wave of attacks in January, which killed 58 people and nearly paralyzed the province, said Hamza Shafaat, a senior government official.
Prior to these attacks, records show a total of five BLA suicide bombers, with the first such attack taking place in 2022, while three other would-be suicide bombers were captured during counterterrorism operations in recent months.
The women’s participation amplifies a movement that the government says has boosted its firepower through access to a huge cache of U.S. weapons left in Afghanistan after Washington’s withdrawal from the neighboring country in 2021.
“Today in South Asia, the BLA is the most organized and deadly insurgent group,” said Abdul Basit, a researcher on insurgency and militancy at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
He cited the group’s use of drones to identify troop deployments and vulnerabilities, adding that it used satellite communication when hijacking a train in February 2025 with more than 400 people on board.
