Karima’s Heirs: The BLF’s All-Female Unit

On September 22, 2026, the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) unveiled a new unit made up entirely of women. It named the unit the Karima Armed Assault Division (KAAD), and released a launch video showing its fighters in training. The same day, the BLF claimed KAAD’s first attack, an ambush on an army convoy near Turbat.

The launch is the clearest sign yet that women are moving from the margins of the Baloch insurgency to its center. Until now, the women the insurgency celebrated were mostly suicide bombers. KAAD is different: it is an operational assault unit, built to fight repeatedly rather than to die in a single attack. This article traces how that happened. It first sets out women’s growing role in the wider insurgency. It then follows the BLF’s own path, from propaganda aimed at women to its first female suicide bomber. Finally, it examines KAAD itself and what it means for the conflict.

Women in the Baloch Insurgency

Women’s visible combat role in the Baloch insurgency dates to April 2022, when Shari Baloch, a schoolteacher and mother of two, killed three Chinese teachers and their driver at Karachi University. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) then declared that “the era of women’s active participation in the armed struggle has begun.” By March 2025, it had used its fourth female suicide bomber.