# Separatists briefly seize Sorab, killing a local official and looting a bank
By IO Digest Desk
On 2025-05-30, dozens of armed separatists briefly seized control of a high-security area in Sorab, a city in southwestern Pakistan, killing a local government official, looting a bank and then withdrawing after a shootout with police and other security forces. The attack was one of the most forceful displays of insurgent mobility in the Balochistan region this year.
Police identified the dead official as Hidayat Buledi. According to local police chief Hafeez Ullah, Buledi's home was set on fire during the assault. Ullah said Buledi was killed while trying to protect women and children trapped inside the burning house, a detail that underlined how quickly the attack moved beyond military targets and into civilian homes.
The attackers did not confine themselves to a single building. The report said they stormed Buledi's residence, set fire to several homes belonging to government officials and looted a bank before fleeing. Four civilians were injured. Officials also said several insurgents were killed in the gun battle that followed the initial rush into the area.
The Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility and said its fighters had taken control of key government buildings in Sorab. Police chief Ullah rejected that account, saying the insurgents fled once security forces responded. That dispute is a familiar part of the Balochistan conflict, where militant groups and officials often issue conflicting accounts of who held what and for how long.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack, saying the assailants had targeted civilians, including women and children. A spokesman for the Balochistan government, Shahid Rind, blamed Indian proxies for the assault without offering evidence. There was no immediate response from New Delhi, and the source material does not provide independent confirmation for that allegation.
Sorab matters strategically because of its location. The city is known for its apple and grape orchards, but it also sits near a key China-Pakistan trade route that links western China's Xinjiang region to Pakistan's Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea. That setting gives attacks in the area a wider resonance than a local raid might otherwise have.
The BLA has been a persistent security concern for Pakistan for years. The group was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019, and the attack in Sorab fits a pattern in which separatists target officials, infrastructure and symbols of state control before security forces can fully seal the area.
For residents, the most immediate reality is the destruction left behind: a dead official, injured civilians, damaged homes and another reminder that even a short-lived takeover can carry a heavy toll. For authorities, the challenge is less about explaining the assault than preventing the next one from moving so quickly through the same narrow corridors of power.
