US designates Balochistan Liberation Army terror group

By Umar Farooq

WASHINGTON (AA) - The U.S. on Tuesday labeled Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) a terrorist group, blaming it for attacks on Chinese Assets in Pakistan's Balochistan province.

The State Department said that the BLA "has carried out several terrorist attacks" over the last year, including a suicide attack in targeting Chinese engineers outside the town of Dalbandin, Balochistan, an attack on the Chinese consulate in the capital of Sindh province, Karachi and another on a hotel in Gwadar, Balochistan.

The province is a key route of China's billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative project which aims to connect China's strategically important northwestern Xinxiang province to Balochistan’s Gwadar port through a network of roads, railways and pipelines to transport cargo, oil and gas.

The department said further that the group "committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism."

Terrorist designations by the State Department also mean that the BLA and anyone affiliated with it is subject to sanctions which deny them access to the U.S. financial system.

The BLA is considered a terrorist organization in Pakistan and the U.K.

Pakistan accuses India of patronizing the group, a charge New Delhi denies.

Balochistan province has been plagued by violence for over six decades, with separatists claiming it was forcibly incorporated into Pakistan at the end of British rule in 1947.