US declares Baloch Liberation Army a foreign terrorist organization

The United States has designated Pakistan’s separatist organization Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) as a terrorist organization. The US State Department announced the decision on Monday (August 11). The British news agency Reuters confirmed this information in a report. The report quoted the US State Department as saying that the United States has designated Pakistan’s separatist Baloch Liberation Army as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’. Earlier, in 2019, Washington also designated another branch of the BLA, Majeed Brigade, as a terrorist organization. The Baloch Liberation Army recently came into the spotlight again after hijacking a passenger train in Pakistan. It is worth noting that the BLA is the most powerful of several rebel groups that have long been active in the Afghanistan and Iran border areas. The region is rich in mineral resources and is home to Beijing’s investment in the Gwadar deep-sea port and other projects. The BLA, which has been waging an armed struggle for more than a decade to demand independence for Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province, after allegations of discrimination and exploitation, was banned in Pakistan in 2006.