High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The 1970s military operation in Balochistan was a a five-year conflict in which a separatist movement in Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan, engaged with the Pakistan Army after then-Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ordered a military operation in the region in 1973. The movement, initiated by Baloch nationalists in the aftermath of the secession of East Pakistan, had been fuelled by Bhutto`s dissolution of successive provincial governments. It was largely coordinated by the Baloch sardars, or tribal chiefs, against Bhutto`s operation, which was led by General Tikka Khan and aided by Iran. The conflict led to unrecorded civilian casualties, as well as heavy losses for the insurgency, until July 1977, when the Bhutto government was deposed by General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.