ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani officials on Tuesday welcomed a move by the U.S. State Department to designate a Pakistani separatist group as a foreign terrorist organization.
The designation of the Balochistan Liberation Army and its fighting wing, the Majeed Brigade, blamed for deadly attacks in Balochistan province, coincides with a visit to the U.S. by Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after Washington and Islamabad reached a trade agreement expected to allow U.S. firms to help develop Pakistan’s largely untapped oil reserves in resource-rich Balochistan and lower trade tariffs for Islamabad.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the designation Tuesday, noting that the BLA was banned at home in 2024.
“Pakistan remains a steadfast bulwark against terrorism. Our sacrifices have secured critical counterterrorism successes, not only for the country, but for regional stability and global security,” it said in a statement.
The BLA was first designated as a terrorist group in 2019 by the U.S. Treasury Department after several attacks. The State Department said its new designation was added because the group has since claimed responsibility for additional attacks.
The new designation means the BLA is now considered a foreign terrorist organization and its supporters will face tougher scrutiny in the U.S. and Europe, analysts said.
The BLA claimed responsibility for suicide bombings near the airport in Karachi and in the port city of Gwadar in Balochistan in 2024, the U.S. statement said.
It added that the group said it carried out the March hijacking of the Jaffar Express train traveling from Quetta to Peshawar, killing 31 civilians and security personnel and holding more than 300 passengers hostage.
“Today’s action taken by the Department of State demonstrates the Trump administration’s commitment to countering terrorism,” the statement said.
Syed Muhammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security analyst, said the designation of the BLA and its Majeed Brigade fighting wing follows Munir’s visits to the U.S.
The designation “indicates a major policy shift by the Trump administration toward South Asia, highlighting the growing role of military diplomacy, deepening bilateral cooperation on counterterrorism, and showing that Washington shares Pakistan’s security concerns about Baloch insurgents,” Ali said.
The change also shows the U.S. values stability in Pakistan and its oil- and gas-rich Balochistan province, he said.
There was no immediate comment from Balochistan nationalists and separatist groups. Balochistan has long been the scene of insurgency, mostly blamed on groups including the key outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, which the U.S. designated a terrorist organization in 2019. The province is also home to militants linked to the Pakistani Taliban.
Separatists in Balochistan have opposed the extraction of resources by Pakistani and foreign firms and have targeted Pakistani security forces and Chinese nationals working on multibillion-dollar projects related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
While Pakistan's government says it has quelled insurgency, violence persists in Balochistan, where troops last week killed 47 insurgents in two separate operations in the Zhob district. The military said Tuesday it killed three additional insurgents in Zhob, raising the number of militants killed to 50 since Thursday.
An explosion on Tuesday ripped through an arms depot in Nowshera, a district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, residents said. There was no immediate statement from police or the military, but authorities were expected to release a statement.
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Riaz Khan contributed from Peshawar, Pakistan.
