In April 2022, at the University of Karachi’s Confucius Institute, a 30-year-old woman from Balochistan detonated herself, shocking many. Since insurgency in Balochistan had long been viewed through the prism of male guerrillas, tribal networks, and mountain hideouts, this was the first publicly confirmed female suicide bomber in Baloch militancy. The movement, since that time, appears to be a calculated one as militants now are enlisting women, at times educated professionals, who are at times psychologically manipulated or blackmailed, and used to launch high-profile attacks.
This strategic development has an embarrassing similarity to the policy that was earlier adopted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka. Over the decades, the LTTE institutionalized the involvement of women beyond support functions, bringing them in as fighters, propagandists, and, most infamously, as suicide bombers, with its wing called the Black Tigers.
The similarities are graphic and frightening.
The Transformation of Gendered Militancy
In the past, tribal communities in Balochistan promoted strict norms that viewed women as honorable and modest beings who were to be excluded from public spaces, let alone battlefields, but groups like the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) are actively weaponizing this specific set of norms. They take advantage of these biases by deploying women to bypass security checks, gaining a tactical advantage based on gendered expectations in society.
In the LTTE, the female militants recruited from Tamil communities were often traumatized by state violence. They were not only volunteering but were being trained and absorbed into all aspects of insurgent activities, such as fighting, intelligence, and propaganda. The LTTE’s use of female militants reconfigured the meaning of participation in conflict as it bifurcated traditional gender roles, turning victims or bystanders into agents and instruments of violence.
Balochistan seems to be following the same route. What once started as a few isolated and symbolic applications of female operatives has taken a more structured form. Women from various social backgrounds, including educated and middle-class families, are being initiated into militancy, and the insurgency is taking a new shape that exploits social fragmentation and gender.
Strategic and Symbolic Utility of Women in Insurgency
The deployment of women fighters is now a common strategy in insurgent warfare for several reasons. To begin with, women are preferred as a tactic of surprise and operational advantage in conservative societies where they are less likely to be questioned at checkpoints, transit centers, or other security-sensitive locations. Female suicide bombers and infiltrators can move more freely, an important factor behind the LTTE’s suicide bombings and one now used by Baloch militant organizations.
Second, there is high propaganda and psychological value in using female militants. A seemingly normal, educated woman defying societal norms creates shock and media coverage, amplifying the insurgents’ message. This effect was seen with the LTTE’s Black Tigers and is now witnessed in Balochistan, where recent female attackers, often teachers or students, disrupt traditional militancy discourses as they gain domestic and international publicity.
Third, recruitment is often based on disenfranchised or disillusioned young people, especially women who feel wronged or desire to be famous. Initially, the LTTE recruited women with histories of communal persecution. In Balochistan, many recruits now come from educated, urban, or semi-urban backgrounds and are driven less by economic need than by a sense of marginalization or the desire to be recognized internationally.
Lessons from the LTTE: Why is the BLA Inspired?
The rise of female militancy in Balochistan must be taken seriously, especially in light of the LTTE’s historical experience. When women become part of an insurgency, their participation often evolves into systematic, institutionalized involvement. In the LTTE, women were no longer fringe players but became central to operations. In Balochistan, the same pattern is emerging, with women increasingly involved in recruitment, logistics, suicide operations, propaganda, and intelligence networks.
Women drawn into militancy are often victims of psychological manipulation, coercion, social isolation, and blackmail. In Balochistan, former female recruits (or those captured before an attack) have described the use of fake social-media relationships, threats to honor, and emotional blackmail. This pattern echoes narratives from former female LTTE members, for whom the allure of “resistance” often concealed traumatic personal histories and coercion.
State and society are ill-equipped to handle this shift. Traditional security structures are designed around male combatants, and social norms do not prepare communities to suspect, interrupt, or rehabilitate female militants. The rise of a narrative of martyrdom and gendered sacrifice reframes insurgency symbolically, turning peripheral violence into a false discourse of collective resistance. Just as the LTTE used female martyrdom to create propaganda, Baloch militants can adopt similar tactics.
Recommendations for Policy and Civil Society
In this context, policymakers, human rights activists, and civil-society actors must understand the gendered dimension of insurgency before the situation escalates. First, gender-sensitive counter-radicalization and prevention networks should be formed, bringing together security agencies, social-welfare institutions, community leaders, women’s organizations, educators, and local NGOs to identify and support individuals, especially women, at risk of radicalization or coercion.
Second, rehabilitation and reintegration programs for reformed female militants are essential, including de-radicalization, psychological counseling, vocational training, and social reintegration. These women may face stigma, honor-based violence, or rejection by their families.
Lastly, propaganda structures and online recruitment platforms must be exposed and countered. As many women are recruited through social-media manipulation, this requires strengthened online monitoring and counter-propaganda efforts.
Conclusion
The militancy of women–educated mothers, students, and professionals in Balochistan is not a mere whim. It is an indicator of structural changes within the insurgency: a re-armament that employs gender, culture, and social norms as weapons. The LTTE experience demonstrated how such a shift can evolve into a completely institutionalized insurgent enterprise in which women are not only involved but become primary agents of violence.
For those concerned with justice, human rights, and long-term stability in Balochistan, ignoring this gendered turn is no longer an option. Rather than condemning only the bombs, the machinery that makes them possible must be confronted.
If you want to submit your articles and/or research papers, please visit the Submissions page.
To stay updated with the latest jobs, CSS news, internships, scholarships, and current affairs articles, join our Community Forum!
The views and opinions expressed in this article/paper are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Paradigm Shift.
