Bangladesh, Sept. 17 -- For years, Kabul has accused Islamabad of using the Islamic States Khorasan arm (ISKP) as a pawn in its regional game. That charge, long dismissed as rhetoric, is looking harder to ignore. ISKPs recent strikes in restive Balochistan have only deepened suspicions that Pakistans deep state may be quietly enabling the group for its own ends. This time, the extremist outfit seems to be deployed – directly or by design – to blunt the Baloch insurgency and silence a growing civil resistance.

Recently, in a chilling development on September 2, the Islamic State Pakistan Province (ISPP), a sub-branch of ISKP, orchestrated a suicide bombing in Quetta, targeting a rally of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (...