Key Pakistani separatist commander ‘surrenders,’ renounces militancy

In this hand photo, taken and released by the Government of Balochistan, Sarfraz Ahmed Bungulzai (4th left, center), key commander of separatist Baloch Nationalist Army group, gestures for a group photo after his press conference following his "surrender" announcement in Quetta on December 20, 2023. (Photo courtesy: GoB)

• 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

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.