I begged my son not to go Balochistan insurgency gains lethal momentum

No one knows how Kamran Hasan became a militant.

- Hannah Ellis-Petersen Shah Meer Baloch

The history-loving 23-year-old had returned home from Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, where he worked as a chartered accountant, and had his hopes set on a degree in education. But in June, he disappeared. A brief phone call to his father came days later.

"He told me: 'I am going to the mountains,'" said his father, Mohammad Akram, who knew that meant only one thing: his son was joining the militant insurgency that had rocked their home region of Balochistan for decades. "I begged him no, asked if it was reasons of money or family that led him to take this step. But he did not give any more details and disconnected the call."

Hasan's story has become a familiar one in many homes across Pakistan's troubled south-western region of Balochistan, the country's largest and poorest province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan. The insurgency in Balochistan is almost as old as the country itself. It began in 1948 when the region was annexed - some say forcefully - to become part of the new Pakistan. Violent separatist uprisings, which were largely tribal-led, took place again in 1958, 1962 and 1973.

In the early 2000s, the violence took a turn. Baloch nationalists, who had long accused the Pakistani state and military of exploiting Balochistan's mineral resources, oppressing its people and rigging its elections, began to mobilise into organised insurgent armies seeking an independent Baloch state.

For years it remained a low-intensity operation, marked by sporadic ambushes. But in recent years the insurgency has gathered a lethal momentum. Baloch militants began to carry out sophisticated attacks on high-profile Pakistani military targets and multimillion-dollar Chinese projects. They also started using suicide bombers.