The Pakistani security agencies must be commended for foiling what could have been a series of devastating suicide bombings planned for August 14, when the nation was celebrating its Independence Day. Too often, we are forced to react after tragedy strikes rather than prevent it. Every instance where the agencies succeed in intercepting perpetrators before they act deserves recognition, and those involved must be appreciated. Yet this is only part of a much larger, more troubling picture.

What is deeply disturbing is that the mastermind behind this plot—a man who facilitated, organised, and coordinated the entire operation—was not some anonymous militant from the shadows, but a university lecturer at Balochistan University, a man embedded in the state system along with his family. His confession, broadcast to the nation, has already led to more arrests, and it is likely that further links will be uncovered. But with this case, a familiar and dangerous pattern has re-emerged.

Immediately after his arrest, groups such as the Baloch Yakjehti Council (BYC), along with sympathetic voices in academia and civil society, rushed to denounce the action, framing it as yet another enforced disappearance targeting intellectuals and freedom of thought. The gulf between the facts and such portrayals could not be wider. When these organisations defend confessed terrorists using the same language reserved for genuine victims of state abuse, they not only distort reality but also strip their own advocacy of all credibility. By blurring these lines, they undermine the very cause of human rights, turning it into a shield for those who openly plot against the state.

With every arrest, Pakistan edges closer to dismantling the networks poisoning Balochistan from within, many of which are fuelled by external support from hostile actors like India and Afghanistan. Equally important, each arrest exposes domestic sympathisers who cloak acts of terror in the language of rights and liberties. To conflate such dangerous agendas with legitimate dissent is not only irresponsible, it is complicit. Pakistan must continue to root out both the terrorists and those who enable them.