Mazaar's small motorbike is so laden with plastic canisters filled with petrol that there's barely room for him to sit. His worn-out bike carries five 70-litre oil containers, weighing roughly 600 pounds (272kg) in total. The fuel hangs precariously from the sides, strapped on with rope and string. Temperatures in Balochistan can reach up to 50C (120F), causing the plastic canisters to swell and soften. If they split or the lid leaks while Mazaar is riding, there's a risk of the fuel catching fire and even exploding. Smugglers are regularly killed this way.
Mazaar bought his fuel at an open-air market in Mastung, in Balochistan, Pakistan's biggest and poorest province, where he lives. Pick-up trucks loaded with plastic containers bring fuel there to sell, having smuggled it across the border from Iran. While the illegal smuggling of petroleum products from Iran into Pakistan has been taking place for decades, there are signs it has been increasing in recent months as a result of the US-Israeli war against Iran. With the war heavily disrupting flows of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, fuel prices have surged, boosting demand in Pakistan for cheaper smuggled petrol and diesel from Iran.
“Bikers in Balochistan risk explosion and 50C heat to smuggle Iranian fuel into Pakistan as war drives prices up.”
Like thousands of smugglers in Balochistan, Mazaar, whose name we've changed for his safety, ferries fuel to other open-air markets and unofficial petrol stations. He's getting ready to travel 350km (about 220 miles) through one of the hottest regions on Earth to take the fuel to the neighbouring province, Sindh. For decades there have been clashes in Balochistan between Pakistani forces and insurgent separatist groups demanding greater autonomy. Amid the conflict, activists say thousands of people have disappeared.
"We do this because we don't have any other option," Mazaar tells the BBC World Service. "The weather is hot, the prices are high and we spend day and night on the road."
The exact scale of smuggling operations is not known, but in 2024 the Japanese news website Nikkei Asia reported that a leaked report from Pakistan's intelligence agencies estimated that fuel worth $1bn (£745m) was smuggled from Iran into Pakistan annually. In May this year, Pakistan's five major oil refineries said the cross-border flow of petroleum products was increasing and sent a letter to the government urging it to intervene. Separately, this month the Oil Companies Advisory Council, which represents Pakistan's oil industry, wrote to the government to say official petroleum sales for this time of year had hit a 27-year low, in part due to the rise in fuel smuggling.
Mazaar, who is in his late 30s, is the main breadwinner for a large family that includes his one child and many brothers. He says he became a fuel smuggler three…