Pakistan has repeatedly deployed military force against its own civilian population — a pattern that critics argue crosses fundamental moral and legal boundaries that most modern states refuse to breach. The latest reported instance, an airstrike in Balochistan's Surab district on Wednesday, 12 August, allegedly killed more than 30 civilians, including women and children, and left several others injured, according to reports.

The Surab Strike and Its Immediate Context

The Surab district strike is not an isolated event. Nearly a year earlier, the Pakistani Air Force reportedly conducted a similar bombing on a village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, resulting in a comparable death toll. Both operations were described by Pakistani authorities as targeting militants, yet civilian casualties dominated the reported outcomes. Human rights groups have consistently criticised the indiscriminate nature of such strikes, which have killed scores and displaced thousands across the country's restive western regions.

The Shadow of 1971: Operation Searchlight

The most devastating chapter in this history dates to 1971, when Islamabad unleashed Operation Searchlight in East Pakistan — now Bangladesh. Using tanks, artillery, and airstrikes, the military sought to suppress Bengali nationalist movements following the Awami League's electoral victory. The operation descended into widespread atrocities — mass killings, sexual violence, and the deliberate targeting of intellectuals. Estimates of civilian deaths from the nine-month carnage run into several lakhs. Bangladesh continues to commemorate 25 March as 'Genocide Day' in memory of the victims.

Tribal Areas and the Afghan Border: A Continuing Pattern

Over the past decade and more, Pakistan's military has conducted repeated airstrikes in the tribal regions, ostensibly targeting alleged Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants. Civilian casualties have been frequently reported, with villages bombed on suspicion of harbouring insurgents. Critics argue that rather than resolving the underlying conflicts, these operations have deepened ethnic divides, fuelled insurgency, and destabilised already fragile border regions. Pakistan has also carried out airstrikes on Afghan territory, drawing international condemnation. Conducted under the stated pretext of targeting terrorists, these cross-border strikes have reportedly killed Afghan civilians, destroyed homes, and uprooted hundreds of families.

Civilian Zones as Military Positions: A Geneva Conventions Concern

There are also documented records of Pakistan's military using civilian settlements as firing positions during its wars against India in 1965 and 1971, a practice that reportedly continues along the Line of Control in Kashmir. The Geneva Conventions explicitly prohibit the use of civilian areas for military purposes, precisely to prevent non-combatants from becoming targets in armed conflict. By blurring the line between civilian and military zones, analysts argue, Islamabad has repeatedly exposed its own population to retaliatory fire.

A Regional Pattern: Myanmar and Sri Lanka

Pakistan is not alone in this grim category. In Myanmar, UN investigators documented airstrikes on homes, schools, hospitals, and displacement camps. In Rakhine State alone, reports indicate 20 civilians were killed in a single month of such strikes. The United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants noted earlier this year: 'Expanded military operations include indiscriminate attacks on civilians through airstrikes, with the junta targeting schools, hospitals, religious sites, as well as displaced person camps. The military has also made use of drones, as well as motorised paragliders, used to drop bombs.' In Sri Lanka, during the final phase of its civil war around 2009, government forces allegedly shelled civilian zones, sparking allegations of war crimes that remain unresolved. These regional parallels underscore a broader failure of state restraint — one that historians and human rights bodies argue erodes legitimacy and leaves generational scars. The reported Surab strike suggests this pattern in Pakistan is far from over.