The Fitna-tul-Hindustan (FAH) a militant organisation that has been active in the Balochistan province for the past two decades. The organisation has targeted army personnel, Frontier Corps, Chinese workers, Punjabi labourers, as well as provincial infrastructure and projects aimed at improving the Baloch community’s social and economic conditions.
The organisation has a separatist agenda, is inspired by Marxist-Leninist thought, and considers Baloch nationalism to be its primary ideology. Though the Baloch community’s grievances are justified given that it is Pakistan’s most impoverished province, the FAH has used the “victim narrative” and anti-state propaganda to not only attract sympathy from the locals but also to justify their violent activities.
A suicide blast at Quetta railway station in November, coordinated by the FAH, was the most fatal strike of 2024, killing at least 25 civilians and security officials..According to the terrorism index, the FAH is also one of the world’s ten deadliest terrorist organisations.
Their method has been guerilla warfare from mountainous shelters and sanctuaries in both Iran and Afghanistan. It is a highly organised, well-coordinated, and heavily armed organisation that uses advanced weapons with assistance from the Indian intelligence agency RAW. One of their techniques is suicide bombing.
Attacks using Female Bombers
Recently, FAH has changed its suicide terrorism tactic by employing women as suicide bombers. In April 2022, Shari Baloch, a 30-year-old mother of two, struck Karachi University’s Confucius Centre with a suicide bomb, killing four people, including three Chinese professors. Not only did the attack claim the lives of innocent people, but it was also the first female suicide bomber attack in Pakistani history, which shocked the nation.
A second attack occurred in June 2023, a year later. Another female suicide bomber, Sumaiya Qalandrani Baloch, struck a Pakistani military convoy in the Turbat district of Balochistan. The most recent attack occurred in March 2025, when a female passenger on a convoy near Kalat pulled out a suicide attack, killing one Frontier Corps man and injuring four others.
Source: Dawn
After looking into the causes behind women’s decision to engage in such gory actions, we found out that there was a Baloch activist named Karima Mehrab Baloch, who had been banished and was later discovered dead in Canada in 2020. According to reports, the catalyst for Baloch women’s decision to join the insurgency was her death.
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In order to incite emotional outrage among Baloch women, FAH militants deliberately took advantage of the emotions surrounding Karima Baloch’s death. They created a compelling narrative, asking women to take up arms, particularly through suicide missions, while warning that silence and inaction would result in a fate similar to Karima’s.
Source: News Line Mag
Gender as Tactical Advantage
Women are often seen as nurturing and life-givers, therefore perceiving them as life-takers is an uncomfortable notion. Though the concept of women as combatants is not something alien, they have served as active warriors throughout war history. The most well-known figures are Joan of Arc, a military combatant who dedicated her life for her nation, and Rani of Jhansi, who fought against the British. Women have also worked as nurses, cooks, manufacturing workers, and even spies in conflict zones.
Nevertheless, it provides a tactical edge. Women can pass security checks more easily, giving them better access to possible targets. Women are rarely suspected of being members of a terrorist organisation preparing an attack, hence they are frequently allowed to pass through. As a result, the Pakistani state now faces a difficult predicament.
The aftermath of the 2022 attack was difficult for Baloch women since the authorities had to make tough decisions. Hundreds of Baloch women were suspected and arrested in several cities. And the suspicion proved to be valid as security forces detained 40-year-old Noor Jehan from the Kech area of Balochistan on suspicion of organising a suicide attack. The Counter Terrorism Department claimed she was a member of the FAH’s Majeed Brigade and had planned to attack a Chinese convoy working on the CPEC in Balochistan.
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Fixing the Gender Blind Spots in Counter-Terrorism Strategy
In the face of a changing threat landscape, reliance on old gender stereotypes in counterterrorism initiatives risks jeopardising both terrorist prevention and mitigation in Pakistan. To keep up with increasingly adaptive extremist tactics, Pakistan’s counterterrorism system must embrace a more gender-sensitive strategy.
Recognising and analysing the various roles women play in political violence is critical, not simply as passive participants or victims, but also as active actors such as recruiters, facilitators, and suicide bombers.
The comprehensive understanding can help a wide range of actors, including civil society organisations and state agencies, create more focused initiatives. Such a technique would aid in identifying the conditions that render women prone to recruitment, as well as investigating the broader ramifications of their expanding and diverse engagement in extremist violence. Crucially, the state must prioritise the integration of more women into the intelligence, law enforcement, and security sectors in order to bridge gender gaps that adversaries continue to exploit.
