The bombardment on Baloch population: Pakistan’s hidden war crimes
Editorial
The night of 12 August, 2026 has left Surab with yet another trail of destruction and mourning. In Gundan, Gidar area of Surab, residential homes were struck in a Pakistani aerial attack, leaving houses destroyed and a large number of people dead and wounded. Among those killed were children, women, and elderly people who were inside their homes when the attack occurred. More than 20 civilian deaths have occurred, alongside dozens of injuries and the displacement of families from the affected area. This revealed the Pakistani atrocities and massacres in Balochistan where direct bombardments are being carried out on Baloch civilians. For the people of Balochistan, however, this is not an unfamiliar scene. Villages and settlements have repeatedly found themselves caught in military operations, bombardments, and shelling from Pakistani security forces. From the violence in Dera Bugti and Kohlu to attacks in Mashkay, Bolan, Panjgur, and Zehri, the geography may change, but the consequence remains painfully familiar: destroyed homes, grieving families, and civilians living under the shadow of military force. Surab is therefore not merely a single night’s tragedy; it is another reminder of a conflict in which ordinary Baloch people have repeatedly borne the greatest burden.
Surab Massacre left everyone heartened, children lost their lives hugging their fathers, women were brutally killed, elderly men were murdered in their sleep, while some others got seriously injured, losing their legs, arms and burning all over the body. This bombardment left everyone, sleeping at their homes, killed or injured, while several houses were turned into ashes in a second. This was not a usual incident but an attack on humanity and a massacre carried out on innocent civilians by Pakistan. The children were killed while sleeping and dreaming for a future, they had yet to live and see the world but the barbaric and colonial Pakistani state snatched everything from them and buried them into ground by its heavy bombardment.
As usual, the so-called spokesperson of terrorist Pakistani state, the son of internationally recognised terrorist, came up with a scripted press release, blaming the Baloch militants in very cheap story. But this time, the scripted lie didn’t work and their own people didn’t believe it. Video footage of the incident surfaced, showing the destroyed parts of Pakistani aerial missiles. This proved the lost credibility of Pakistani state which relies only on lies and false propaganda.
Earlier same incident were also occurred in Balochistan where children, women, elderly people and shepherds were brutally killed in bombardment, mortar shelling and drones attack. Two days earlier, a drone attack by Pakistani forces killed a shepherd in Mastung. In early incidents Sham-e-Sar, Panjgur witnessed a heavy bombardment, where women and children killed including 10 months old baby. Apart from this, such incidents occur on daily basis and Baloch people are being killed by this barbaric state. These are the hidden war crimes committed by Pakistani state in Balochistan.
This consistency of violence deserves international concern to hold Pakistan accountable for the ongoing genocide in Balochistan. While the truth is visible to the Baloch people, the colonial state keeps silence on such incidents, when highlighted, then they come, creating fabricated and bogus claims about the incidents. The occupied people of Balochistan have long witnessed the brutality of this state in different forms, from enforced disappearances to extrajudicial killings, displacement, deteriorating mental health, airstrikes, and open bombardment of innocent people. However, the deeper concern is the normalisation of violence against innocent populations in Balochistan. Surab should therefore not be allowed to fade into another statistic.
The continuing cycle of bombardment and repression will not bring the resistance against colonialism to an end, nor will it silence the Baloch people against Pakistan’s colonial occupation; rather, it will broaden the measures of struggle and expose the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. Therefore, this bloodshed cannot weaken the spirit of this movement; it will strengthen the collective idea of nationalism and raise the consciousness of every Baloch. Following this incident, and every act of oppression, BSO Azad will stand resilient in exposing the truth behind the cunning state of Pakistan and the puppets of its government. For us, every Baloch who is a victim of this oppression, every martyr who sheds their blood, and every family who loses their habitat will be a paragon of our National Liberation Movement.