QUETTA: A key commander of the separatist Baloch Nationalist Army (BNA) group, Sarfraz Ahmed Bungulzai, said on Wednesday he was surrendering before the Pakistani state along with 70 associates, an announcement he made at a press conference in which he sat alongside government officials.
Bungulzai’s surrender comes months after Pakistan’s top intelligence agency arrested Gulzar Imam, also known by the name Shambay, the militant founder and leader of the banned BNA, an umbrella group formed after two main insurgent groups, the Baloch Republican Army and United Baloch Army, merged.
Commanders like Bungulzai and Imam have been at the forefront of a low-level insurgency for independence by Baloch separatists for more than two decades in the gas-rich southwestern Balochistan province at the border of Afghanistan and Iran.
“I was misguided by some people to join militancy but now, I have realized that this path does not lead to either liberation or the wellbeing of Balochistan,” Bungulzai said at the press conference, seated next to the provincial information minister.
“Therefore, I have decided to quit violence and join the peace process,” said the commander, who was appointed to lead the BNA after the arrest of Imam in April this year.
The 70 associates Bungulzai said had surrendered with him were not present at the press conference.
While Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but poorest province, it is a strategically key region, and at the heart of the $65 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which aims to connect China’s strategically important northwestern Xinxiang province to Balochistan’s Gwadar port through a network of roads, railways, and pipelines for cargo, oil, and gas transportation.
Gwadar is located near the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil shipping route in the Arabian Sea.
Beijing has invested heavily in Balochistan, including developing the deepwater port, despite the decades-long separatist insurgency and intermittent attacks on Chinese workers in the area.
Key Pakistani separatist commander ‘surrenders,’ renounces militancy
https://arab.news/2ds5g
Key Pakistani separatist commander ‘surrenders,’ renounces militancy
- Sarfraz Ahmed Bungulzai’s surrender comes months after arrest of Baloch Nationalist Army commander Gulzar Imam
- Sepratists like Bungulzai and Imam have been at the forefront of a decades-long insurgency in mineral-rich Balochistan
Pakistan arrests suspect arriving from Cambodia amid crackdown on human smuggling
- Suspect worked at an “online fraud company” in Cambodia, later started smuggling people from Pakistan, says FIA
- Pakistan has intensified crackdown against human smugglers after hundreds of migrants drowned near Pylos in 2023
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Sunday said it had arrested a key suspect involved in smuggling humans who had arrived from Cambodia, alleging he was also part of an international fraud network.
The suspect, identified as Zainullah, was arrested by FIA officials when he arrived in the southern port city of Karachi from Cambodia.
Zainullah had traveled from Pakistan to Cambodia in September 2024, a press release issued by the agency said.
“He worked at an online fraud company in Cambodia and later became involved as an agent in recruiting individuals from Pakistan,” the FIA said.
The FIA said it recovered images of multiple individuals’ passports, payment receipts and bank transaction records after extracting data from Zainullah’s phone.
It said the suspect received money through personal bank accounts and a cryptocurrency account.
“The suspect has been handed over to the FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circle, Karachi, for further legal proceedings,” the FIA said.
“Further investigation is underway.”
Pakistan intensified action against illegal migration in 2023 after hundreds of migrants, including 262 Pakistanis, drowned when an overcrowded vessel sank off the Greek town of Pylos, one of the deadliest boat disasters in the Mediterranean.
Authorities say they continue to target networks sending citizens abroad through dangerous routes, following heightened scrutiny at airports and a series of arrests involving forged documents.
Pakistan’s interior ministry said this week illegal migration to Europe has declined by 47 percent this year after its nationwide crackdown, saying that more than 1,700 human smugglers have been arrested in 2025.
