The recent decision by the United States Department of State to declare the Balochistan Liberation Army and its Majeed Brigade as a Foreign Terrorist Organization is a moment of truth for those who still try to disguise the group as a political movement. To Pakistan, it is not a mere diplomatic move but an explicit recognition of the suffering, salvage and devastation that the BLA has created in recent years. There is no doubt about what it has achieved. Whether it is the suicide bombing in Karachi and Gwadar and hijacking of the Jaffar Express earlier this year, where thirty-one innocent civilians and security persons were killed and more than three hundred passengers taken as hostages the track record of the BLA has been a selective bloodshed. These acts are not products of a group struggling to get its rights; they are the atrocities of an organisation that wants to instill fear in people.
Real political movements pursue dialogue, operate within the democratic processes and the well-being of their people is the most important thing. BLA works vice versa. It has settled on violence more than once than on dialogue and devastation when it came to growth. The fact that it destroys lives by slaughtering transport systems, ports, and other facilities in the public is not only economically crippling to the people it purports to represent. Each bomb that destroys a railway track, each time a bomb frightens away an investment, and each time a bomb explodes to sabotage a development project, Balochistan goes a little bit poorer and a little bit more isolated. However, in reality, the violence against the Baloch conducted by BLA is more detrimental to Baloch than beneficial to them.
It is even not a secret that the BLA has courted long the favour of foreign elements who are not really interested in the future of Balochistan. They move with an intention to cause instability in Pakistan so that it is strategically good to them. Being on the same side of the forces leaves no moral place that the group may be entitled to, and shows that it is being used as a pawn to a bigger and more threatening game. That is why it is so important that the BLA has been recognized as a terrorist organization per se internationally. It denies them funding sources, leaves them diplomatically isolated and proves to the world what Pakistan has been telling it all these years the BLA is not a freedom movement but a terrorist tool.
Against this backdrop, the Pakistan Army has stood as the first line of defense for the country’s sovereignty and the safety of its citizens. In Balochistan, the Army’s efforts are not aimed at silencing voices but at protecting lives, maintaining stability, and enabling the progress that terrorism seeks to destroy. Soldiers have given their lives to keep communities safe and to ensure that development projects, including those linked to the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, can move forward. In a province where the terrain is harsh and the security challenges are serious, the Army’s work is as much about building as it is about defending. Roads, schools, medical camps, and infrastructure projects are tangible examples of its commitment to the welfare of local people, even in areas most affected by militancy.
The human cost of the BLA’s attacks is often hidden behind numbers, but every statistic represents a shattered family. The victims of the Jaffar Express attack were ordinary people going about their lives, parents, children, friends, and neighbors. Their only crime was boarding a train. Meanwhile, those who order such attacks often operate from safe locations abroad, far removed from the suffering they cause. It is the people of Balochistan who bear the consequences, living with loss, fear, and uncertainty.
BLA cannot be defeated through only military action. It urges the convergence of the government, civil society, media, and the masses to refute and take on narratives that seek to explain terrorism. It entails the denial of propaganda that kills murderers as martyrs and the statement that the truth can be spoken loudly and unanimously. Struggle against extremism has the greatest weapon, development. With employment, educational opportunities, medical care and a vested interest in development of the community, the toxic allure of violence disappears.
The decision of the U.S. to declare BLA and its Majeed Brigade as a terrorist organization should not have its doubt regarding the actual nature of the group. This is never a liberation movement. It is a web of militants who are being financially supported by foreign elements to sabotage the development in Pakistan. The vigilance of the Pakistan Army along with the will of its people will mean that they will not succeed. Balochistan needs to be peaceful, stable and the citizens should have an opportunity to create a better life and live without the fear of intimidation. Pakistan has made it apparent that the country would not see violence prevail over solidarity. The mere point to BLA is point final and it is that this country will be united and terrorism will never take charge of deciding its fate.
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