RAHIM YAR KHAN (Pakistan), November 1 — With showman style and an outlaw’s mustache, the Pakistani gangster calls the hotline in his own most wanted notice, mocking the authorities who placed a reward on his head.

Looking through the lens in a social media clip, Shahid Lund Baloch challenges the official on the phone and his thousands of viewers: “Do you know my circumstances or my reasons for taking up arms?”

The 28-year-old is hiding in a riverine plot of land in central Punjab that has long offered shelter to bandits and is using the Internet to charm citizens even as he attacks them, police say.

On TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, he fascinates tens of thousands with messages delivered gun in hand, romanticizing his rural lifestyle and cultivating a reputation as a defender of the people.

But he is wanted in 28 cases, including murder, kidnapping and attacks on police, with a price of 10 million rupees (RM157,640) on his head.

“People sitting outside think he is a hero, but people here know he is not a hero,” said Javed Dhillon, a former lawmaker from Rahim Yar Khan district, near the hideouts of Baloch and other bandits like him. .

“They have been the recipients of their cruelty and violence.”

This photo taken on October 9, 2024 shows elite police personnel patrolling on a sandy island along the Indus River, in the ‘Katcha lands’ in Rahim Yar Khan district. Somewhere in central Pakistan, Shahid Lund Baloch is hiding in a riverine plot that has long offered refuge to bandits and using the Internet to captivate citizens even as he attacks them, police say. — AFP Photo

Backwater with bandwidth

Baloch are said to inhabit a sandy island in the “Katcha lands” (which roughly translates as “backwaters”) on the Indus River, which runs through Pakistan from top to bottom.

High-altitude crops provide cover for ambushes and the region is divided by shifting waterways that complicate the pursuit of crimes ranging from kidnapping to highway robbery and smuggling.

At the intersection of three of Pakistan’s four provinces, gangs with hundreds of members have for decades taken advantage of poor coordination between police forces by moving from one jurisdiction to another.

“The natural features of these lands support criminals,” said senior police official Naveed Wahla. “They hide in a hydraulic turbine, they move on boats or among sugar cane crops.”

Extensive police operations and even an army raid in 2016 failed to impose law and order. In August of this year, a rocket attack on a police convoy killed 12 officers.

“In the current situation here there is only fear and terror,” said Haq Nawaz, whose adult son was kidnapped in late September for a ransom of five million rupees that he cannot pay.

“There is no one to look after our well-being,” he complains.

But gangs are increasingly online.

Some use the Internet to set “honey traps” that lure kidnapping victims by posing as romantic suitors, business partners, and advertising cheap sales of tractors or cars.

Some display hostages in ransom clips or display arsenals of heavy weapons in musical TikToks.

Baloch has by far the largest online profile: angry cops with a combined total of 200,000 followers.

This photo taken on October 9, 2024 shows local district police officer Rizwan Gondal speaking during an interview with AFP at his office in Rahim Yar Khan district. — AFP Photo

Rizwan Gondal, police chief of Rahim Yar Khan district, says his detectives have a file proving his “heinous criminal activities.”

“The police have made multiple efforts to capture him, but he managed to escape,” he added.

“He’s a very media-savvy guy. Let him say: ‘I am going to turn myself in before the State to prove that I am innocent’ and let the media cover it.”

‘Dear brother bandit’

In his clips, Baloch protests his innocence while presenting himself as a vigilante in a lawless land, stating that he chose to fight only after members of his family were killed in tribal clashes.

“We couldn’t get justice from the courts, so I decided to take up arms and started fighting with my enemies,” Baloch told AFP. “They killed our people, we killed theirs.”

But it also plays into the cycle of state neglect that breeds banditry and, in turn, relegates destitute farming communities to the margins of society.

“Here the villagers are not seen as humans but as animals,” Baloch told AFP. “If they gave us schools, electricity, public hospitals and justice, why would anyone even think of taking up arms?”

In the comments sections, his viewers call him “beloved brother bandit” and “true hero.” “You have won my heart,” says another.

“He is popular with the mainstream because he is giving law enforcement a hard time,” said former lawmaker Dhillon.

“People like him to say things they can’t say out loud against people they can’t speak against.”

This photo taken on October 9, 2024 shows elite police personnel supervising security at a post on a sandy island along the Indus River, in the ‘Katcha lands’ in Rahim Yar Khan district. — AFP Photo

Stolen followers

The police have proposed to counter the bandits by downgrading mobile towers to 2G in Katcha lands, preventing social media applications from loading.

That has not happened yet and would risk further isolating communities.

But more low-tech solutions have had some success.

An anti-honey trap police cell warns citizens against gangs with the help of billboards and loudspeakers at access control posts to the area, preventing 531 people from becoming victims of gangs since last August, according to their data .

Baloch mocks the police. But a problem affecting his bid for online stardom catches his attention.

Copycat social media accounts impersonate him and share duplicates of his videos, gaining thousands more followers and views than his legitimate accounts.

He feels robbed. “I don’t know what they’re trying to achieve,” he complains.

But for police, his online hero status is at odds with the cost of his crimes.

“People will idealize Shahid Lund Baloch, but when he is finally kidnapped by him, they will realize who Shahid Lund Baloch really is,” said Senior Officer Wahla. — AFP