The United States has designated the designated the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorists organization, which has perpetrated several attacks against civilian and military targets in the Pakistani province.
Pakistan has for long expressed concern over the BLA’s involvement in terrorism and the U.S. State Department designation of the organization comes weeks ahead of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Washington D.C. for talks with President Donald Trump. The BLA leaders are said to be hiding in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Balochistan is one of the most strategically important areas at the confluence of the Gulf and is the key route for China Pakistan Economic Corridor, and terrorists have often tried to disrupt development work in the province which also has Gwadar deep seaport.
Balochistan province highlighted in red in a map of Pakistan, Image: TUBS via Wikimedia Commons
“BLA is an armed separatist group that targets security forces and civilians, mainly in ethnic Baloch areas of Pakistan. BLA has carried out several terrorist attacks in the past year, including a suicide attack in August 2018 that targeted Chinese engineers in Balochistan, a November 2018 attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi, and a May 2019 attack against a luxury hotel in Gwadar, Balochistan,” the State Department said.
The United States and Pakistan are working collaboratively to push the Afghan reconciliation talks and it’s been only in the last few months the two sides have shown signs of recovering the relationship which ebbed to the lowest point last year with President Trump’s Twitter condemnation of the South Asian ally and suspension of security assistance.
In recent months, Trump has said the U.S.-Pakistan relations – considered critical to South Asian and Afghan peace – are much better than what they were previously.
The State Department notification issued Tuesday also includes terrorist designations for Hizballah operative Ali Hazzima and Jundallah outfit.
