Pakistan’s Security Lapse and the Price of Suppressed Voices

The Pakistani establishment is quick to invoke patriotism and conspiracy theories when incidents like this occur, often blaming foreign hands.

- SYED JAHANZEEB

Yet the hands that continue to strangle dissent at home are never questioned. Every time a family in Quetta mourns a missing son, every time a protest in Turbat is met with bullets, and every time a journalist disappears for reporting the truth, a little more faith is lost in the state. When democratic routes are blocked, insurgency finds space.

The brutal attack on the Jaffar Express on April 8, 2025, near Mach in Balochistan, has not only exposed Pakistan’s consistent security failures but also laid bare a far more uncomfortable truth-the violent consequences of state repression and unresolved grievances. With at least 17 innocent lives lost and dozens more injured in a coordinated IED blast, this incident is not just a tragedy of intelligence failure but also a chilling reflection of the growing unrest born out of long-standing human rights abuses across Pakistan, especially in regions like Balochistan. As a Kashmir-based journalist, I write this not from a place of detached commentary, but from lived experience. I know what it means to live under a shadow of surveillance, where young men disappear without explanation and justice is a mirage. The stories of missing persons, arbitrary detentions, media blackouts, and institutional silencing in Kashmir are uncannily echoed in Balochistan, albeit with even less visibility and fewer voices to raise alarm. The Jaffar Express attack, as horrifying as it is, cannot be seen in isolation from the lived pain of these communities.