QUETTA: Chief Minister of Balochistan, Mir Sarfraz Bugti, on Monday announced the formation of a special cell to identify and dismantle terrorist networks operating within educational institutions.
Addressing a press conference alongside senior officials, including Additional Chief Secretary Home Hamza Shafqaat, Acting IG Police Saeed Wazir, and provincial spokesperson Shahid Rind, Bugti confirmed the arrest of Dr Muhammad Usman Qazi, a Grade-18 lecturer at Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS), accused of being a key facilitator of the banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
The chief minister revealed that security agencies had thwarted a major terrorist plot targeting Independence Day celebrations on August 14. “If a professor becomes a terrorist, you cannot garland him,” Bugti said, warning that those abetting terrorism—regardless of profession or status—would face strict action.
According to Bugti, Dr Qazi was involved in providing a pistol to a female facilitator for targeted killings, as well as assisting in a suicide attack at Quetta railway station. He said the growing involvement of educated individuals and women in terrorism was alarming. He announced the formation of a special cell within the Home Department to counter extremism in educational institutions.